Jean-Achille Benouville

1815–1891, Paris

Jean-Achille Benouville trained under Léon Cogniet and François Picot, and in 1838 undertook what was to be the first of several Italian tours. A stay of several months in Rome in 1843, during which Benouville collaborated very closely with Corot, proved to be a very formative experience. Thereafter the Italian landscape, bathed in its special Mediterranean glow, was to become a central theme of his art. Of particular importance in this connection are Benouville’s gouaches and watercolours, which appeared regularly from 1844 onwards. Their vivacity, lightness of touch and fluid use of colour place them stylistically somewhere between Pierre Henry de Valenciennes and Corot.