Paul-Désiré Trouillebert (1829-1900) La corvée d’eau

Oil on canvas signed lower left
Dimensions: H. 46 cm x W. 55 cm (with frame: H. 64.5 cm x W. 74 cm)
This work is described and reproduced in the catalog Raisonné
on Paul Désiré Trouillebert, by Claude Marumo, N° 0794, p.437

Paul-Désiré Trouillebert was born in Paris in 1829. In France, he was one of the best outdoor landscape painters of the 19th century, and undoubtedly the artist closest to Corot, with whom he forged a close relationship. Trouillebert's light, airy brushstrokes enabled him to play with transparencies; his palette, essentially composed of blues, greens and browns, had a very special tonality thanks to the ochre preparation that Trouillebert applied to his canvases and panels before painting, and which was like his second signature. Like Corot, he declared: “ I only work from nature, I don't accept studies copied in the studio ”.

Trouillebert is associated with the Barbizon school, and his style is clearly marked, easily recognizable by an expert. Trained by the academic portraitist Ernest Hébert, it was primarily for his portraits and nudes that Trouillebert was accepted at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1865, where he exhibited until 1884. He traveled all over France, but his subjects on the banks of the Loire and the Seine are indisputably the most sought-after. Indeed, it is in the execution of moving waters, animated skies and wind-swept birch trees that the artist excels.
In this painting, reproduced in the reference work, we find all the essential criteria that determine Trouillebert's most appreciated works. Without being a huge painting, this work is of good size, with a format perfectly suited to the composition. The subject is the one for which this artist is so highly regarded: the banks of the Loire, with a beautiful presence of water and a blue sky animated by moving clouds; the trees follow the slope of the bank to form a diagonal and a beautiful depth of field. Finally, this wonderful rural scene is subtly enlivened by a woman hauling up a bucket full of water from the banks of the river where two perfectly drawn boats are tied. And, as always in Trouillebert's successful works, we find the transparencies of the foliage in its infinite variety of greens, and the blue/gray-toned watercourse merging with the opposite bank where we see a building amidst the trees. In this Trouillebert, the proximity to Corot is obvious: the brushstroke is light and alert, and the rendering is vaporous. This is a magnificent work.

Museums where works by Paul Désiré Trouillebert can be found
Paris, Musée d’Orsay et Petit Palais / New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Baltimore, Walters Art Museum / Cleveland, Museum of Art / Saint-Pétersbourg, Musée de l’Hermitage / Valparaiso, Fine Arts Museum …