{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O127890"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O127890/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH7562/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH7562/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BH7562","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O127890/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O127890","accessionNumber":"620-1901","objectType":"Oil painting","titles":[{"title":"Water Mill: Charentonneau","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Alexandre Pau de Saint-Martin (active ca. 1791-1848) probably trained with Jean-Baptiste Leprince (1734-1781) and later with Vernet (Carle? 1758-1836) but very little is known about his life. He exhibited at the Salon in Paris from 1791 through 1848, under the name Saint-Martin until 1812 and from 1814 until 1848 under the name Pau de Saint-Martin and painted in many regions of France and even in Switzerland. He had a son named Pierre-Alexandre (active 1784-1834) and trained at a very early stage his cousin Théodore Rousseau who would become one of the leaders of the school of Barbizon..\r\n\r\nThis painting is a good example of landscape paintings of the second half of the 18th century in France. It shows a sunny landscape with figures involved in a rural activity in the Norman countryside. This type of compositions echoes a new interest in nature, which developed in France after the Rococo period under the impetus of such theorists as Jean-Jacques Rousseau.","physicalDescription":"A half-timbered water mill on the banks of a river with a woman hanging washing over a line in the foreground, lower left, two boys fishing in the central foreground, two men in a boat in the right middle distance with in the right background a flock of sheep, a castle and a wooded valley.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Pau de Saint-Martin, Alexandre","id":"A18048"},"association":{"text":"painter (artist)","id":"AAT25136"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oil paint","id":"AAT15050"},{"text":"walnut","id":"AAT12476"}],"techniques":[{"text":"oil painting","id":"AAT178684"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oil on walnut panel","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"French School","id":"x31263"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006BH7562"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"A","id":"THES304415"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"oil paintings","id":"AAT33799"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1789","earliest":"1784-01-01","latest":"1793-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence, Bt","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"38.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"estimate","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"54.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"estimate","note":""},{"dimension":"","value":"","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"Measurement taken at time of assessment prior to BH decant - Frame Dimensions (mm): H-593 W-745 D-120;\nPainting Dimensions (mm): not measured"}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from  C.M. Kauffmann,<i>Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800</i>, London, 1973.","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'AP [monogram] St Martin 178[?9]'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed and dated by the artist, lower right"},{"content":"Saint Martin - Charentonneau'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inscribed on the back"}],"objectHistory":"Given by Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence, Bt, 1901\r\nSir Edwin Durning-Lawrence (1837-1914) was born in London, the son of William Lawrence, Alderman.  He was educated at University College School, University College London (BA, 1861 and LLB with honours). He married Edith Jane Durning Smith in 1874, the daughter and co-heiress of politician John Benjamin Smith.\r\nDuring 1867, Durning-Lawrence was called to Middle Temple and also was a member of the Metropolitan Board of Works for a short time, as well as a Lieutenant for the City of London and a Justice of the Peace in Berkshire. He was elected as Liberal Unionist member of Parliament for Truro in 1895; a position he held until 1906. Durning-Lawrence's main interest was literature, especially the Bacon/ Shakespeare controversy; he was the author of <u>Bacon is Shakespeare</u> (1910) and <u>The Shakespeare Myth</u> (1912).  In 1901 he gave to the V&A thirteen paintings, museum numbers 620 to 633-1901.\n\nHistorical significance: This painting is a good example of Alexandre Pau de Saint-Martin’s landscape paintings, a category in which he specialised. This painting shows peasants involved in a daily activity in a sunny landscape, most likely the river Charentonne who runs in Normandy near Bernay. The composition idea recalls the 17th-century Dutch tradition of landscape paintings with its large blue sky and low horizon line opening onto a wooded valley. A characteristic feature of the Norman countryside is the half-timbered water mill. \r\nThe taste for such realistic scenes appeared in France in the second half of the 18th century when a new passion for the countryside became associated in people’s mind with goodness and virtue. This new artistic interest echoes ideas developed in the literature such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s <i>La Nouvelle Heloïse</i> published in 1761 and the writings of theorists such as Quesnay and Turgot. However the stormy clouds on the left hand side provide the picture with a sense of unquietness and anticipates somehow the importance of the influence of the elements on man in the following Romanticism. \r\nThis kind of landscape paintings, inaugurated by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) and followed closely by Francesco Giuseppe Casanova (1727-1803), Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740-1812) and Houel (1735-1813), bridge the gap between the pastoral and the sublime.","historicalContext":"Although France and England became the new centres of landscape art in the 18th century, the Italian and Dutch traditions retained their authority. However the Arcadian vision of Italy increasingly tended towards a more precise observation of nature. Some of the most exciting developments took place in Venice, in the soft scenes of Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788), inspired by Claude Lorrain (1604-1682), and the fresh, spontaneous landscapes of Marco Ricci (1676-1730). Wealthy patrons, often accompanied by artists, on The Grand Tour, created a market for veduta and capriccio paintings, respectively topographical and fantasist landscape paintings. Landscape conventions were further enriched by foreign artists working in Italy, responding both to the beauty of Italian light and scenery celebrated by the Latin poets and vividly captured in the most popular landscapes of Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675).","briefDescription":"Oil on panel, 'Water Mill: Charentonneau', Alexandre Pau de Saint-Martin, 1789","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"C.M. Kauffmann,  <u>Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800</u>, London, 1973, p. 213 cat. no. 269."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"France","id":"x28849"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"rivers","id":"AAT8707"},{"text":"landscapes","id":"x31544"},{"text":"water mills","id":"AAT6270"},{"text":"figures","id":"x31098"},{"text":"sheep","id":"x30093"},{"text":"animals","id":"x30274"}],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"landscape","id":"x35496"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["620-1901"],"accessionNumberNum":"620","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1901,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2006-09-21","availableToBook":true}}