Joseph LATOUR(1806–1863)-St. Martin Bridge, Toledo and Cathedral of Ségovia

Joseph Pierre Tancrède LATOUR
(Noé, 1806 – Toulouse, 1863)

View of the St. Martin Bridge of Toledo and the Cathedral of Segovia, Spain

Oil on panel
Signed and dated lower right
44,5 x 73 cm
1854


Landscape artist unusual in the painting market - best known for his drawings, Joseph LATOUR was born near Toulouse (Noé, April 17, 1806). Son of a manufacturer of candles, he has an early vocation for drawing . Very early on learning, he draws all he can and thus acquires a fast drawing, nervous and acquires real sensitivity for the description of nature, his first element of inspiration.
Taken in hand by an uncle of Toulouse, the boy enters the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1825 to leave it four years later. Passionate about music, paintings and antique furniture, surrounded by friends and students, this painter took part in Toulouse or regional exhibitions as early as 1829, but never at the Paris Salons. Celebrated regionally during his lifetime (several times medalist at the Salon of Toulouse), but completely forgotten during the first half of the 20th century, LATOUR often hesitated in his painting between an anecdotal realism and an exacerbated romanticism. But he was foremost precursor in the adventure of outdoor painting.
In Toulouse, he taught drawing at the Institution des Feuillants held by the Ladies of Saint-Maur and, very quickly, his studio in the Place des Carmes is another meeting of the young aristocracy of Toulouse.
LATOUR is particularly fond of the Luchon region. Moreover, some of his drawings on the Pays de Luchon were lithographed by him at Constantin in Toulouse.
The pupils of LATOUR - Maxime LALANNE, Jacques Raymond BRASCASSAT, Charles of SAINT FELIX, Eugène FIL, Eugene de MALBOS, Jules de LAHONDES or Louise of CARAYON-TALPAYRAC - make the Toulouse exhibitions benefit from the fruits of the moving of the studio in full air and his romantic painting.
LATOUR traveled to Holland, but especially to Spain, a country which was for him a source of inspiration as our painting can testify. Our composition includes heterogeneous elements from his various trips around Madrid, namely the St. Martin Bridge of Toledo spanning the Tagus of its five arches and in the distance on the left a large religious building representing the Cathedral of Segovia amputated its tower bell tower.
It is in the field of landscape from nature that LATOUR will excel This is what gives him today his place among the forerunners of outdoor painting. The abbot of LA TOUR went so far as to assert that "the DAUBIGNY, COURBET, BIDA, COROT, ROUSSEAU, and others (...) always gave him at least two days" when they "went to the Pyrenees to study the great nature on the spot ".
With a real technical force through his stroke of the pen and his sense of composition, his soul supplement remains his sensitivity to nature. For each landscape, LATOUR adjusts its angle of view to magnify the site while retaining its authenticity.
His work evokes a "happy" creation that, by its truth, gives LATOUR its place among the great landscape painters of the 19th century.
Joseph LATOUR dies as a result of a car accident on March 1, 1863. He bequeaths himself to his brother and his faithful servant who will disperse all at auction, this explaining the shortcomings noted today in full knowledge of his work. artist rests at the cemetery of Terre Cabade in Toulouse, a city where, according to his own admission, he was "a hundred times better than a fish in the water".

Museums: Montpellier (Fabre Museum), Toulouse (Paul Dupuy Museum), Gaillac, Lourdes ...