SIMON-JOSEPH-ALEXANDRE-CLÉMENT DENIS (FLEMISH 1755-1813), A TURKISH CAPRICCIO

SIMON-JOSEPH-ALEXANDRE-CLÉMENT DENIS (FLEMISH 1755-1813)A TURKISH CAPRICCIOOil on canvasSigned with initial and dated ‘1790’ (lower left)50 x 63cm (19½ x 24.in.)Provenance:Sotheby’s, New York, 17 January 1986, lot 136Sotheby’s, New York, 22 May 1997, lot 20Matthiesen Gallery, LondonLiterature:Brachini, Simon Denis (1755-1813) in Italia: dipinti e disegni do paesaggio, Doctoral thesis, University of Bologna, 2003, no. 11Simon Denis (1755-1813) was born in Antwerp where he studied before moving to Paris, gaining thepatronage of Jean-Baptiste Le Brun, whose support allowed him to move to Rome after 1786. Denisspecialised in finished landscapes of famous sites, such as the waterfalls of Tivoli, which brought great acclaimand a close relationship with the head of the French academy in Rome, as well as with other artists includingLe Brun's wife Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun.Denis' meticulous technique, skillfully depicts naturalistic details and light effects and the artist is considered an early exponent of plein-air painting, making open air oil sketches aroundRome which he usually signed and annotated. He was appointed court painter to Joseph Bonaparte,King of Naples, in 1806, and remained in Italy until his death in 1813.PaintingsdepictingOttomanTurkey during the second half of theeighteenth century were usually painted by resident European artists and wereessentially documentary in nature. There were a number of travel bookspublished in the period, aimed at depicting precisely thetopography of the Ottoman Empireand the customs and habits of itspeople with huge engraved platesdrawn by prominent local Europeanartists, for example M. d'Olisson, Tableaux Général deL'Empire Othoman, which beganpublication in Paris in 1787. The increased interest in Turkey was also stimulated bythe Ottoman embassies to France in 1721 and 1742 where a fascination developed with Ottoman tentedcities, particularly after the presentation by the Sultan to Louis XV of a number of Ottoman tents.The present detailed landscape composition is essentially a Turkish riversidecapriccio in neoclassical taste, and was painted during the first year of the French Revolution. There is no record of the artist ever having visited Turkey, but in the present work he has espoused all the stereotypical elements of a traditional Turkish landscape, perhaps drawn from artists who had visited in the previous century, The characters along the bank of the river are dressed in turbans and depicted drinking coffee and smoking chibouk pipes, with camels crossing the stone bridge.The present work is an example of the phenomenon of the vogue for‘le goût turquerie’ that occurred in eighteenth-century in England, France, andItaly.The present work is unique in the artist's oeuvre. The elegantEuropean figure on the far bank is intriguing and may portray the artist'spatron. The painting may have been executed as a commission from anaristocratic client who was a devotee of Turquerie and who had been displacedfrom France by the Revolution or possibly one of the visiting English‘milordi’, perhaps the prominent man in western dress, tailcoat and breeches,in the centre of the painting, who looks back at the artist. For devotees ofthe Grand Tour a Turkish landscape capriccio was part of a continual demand forexotic novelties which gave a glimmer of a fanciful world created during theancient regime that was collapsing.

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