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Running Stream at San Cosimato

Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld

European Art

On View:
Bidauld earned a place among the pioneers of openair painting with a five-year stint working in the hidden corners of the Italian countryside during the 1780s. Rivers and streams offered an opportunity to study the contrast between the rough-edged rocks lining riverbeds and those worn smooth by centuries of running waters. These subjects posed a favorite challenge: capturing the constant motion of powerfully churning rapids and delicately swirling eddies. Here, Bidauld loaded a fine brush with white paint to convey the froth of the teeming waters, lending unexpected texture to an otherwise highly finished surface.
MEDIUM Oil on paper laid down on canvas
  • Place Made: Italy
  • DATES 1788
    DIMENSIONS 12 1/4 × 19 5/8 in. (31.1 × 49.8 cm) 12 3/8 × 19 11/16 in. (31.5 × 50 cm) frame: 18 × 25 1/4 × 3 1/4 in. (45.7 × 64.1 × 8.3 cm)  (show scale)
    SIGNATURE Signed bottom left: "Bidauld/1788"
    INSCRIPTIONS Verso: "Le Tesserone, à St. Cosimato/payé à M. Bidauld/deux milles Francs/en 1830/Lg."
    COLLECTIONS European Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 1996.93
    CREDIT LINE A. Augustus Healy Fund and Healy Purchase Fund B
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld (French, 1758–1846). Running Stream at San Cosimato, 1788. Oil on paper laid down on canvas, 12 1/4 × 19 5/8 in. (31.1 × 49.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Healy Purchase Fund B, 1996.93 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1996.93_SL3.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 1996.93_SL3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2015
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