François-Edouard Bertin

1797–1871, Paris

The painter, François-Edouard Bertin, began his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1815. Initially a pupil of Anne Louis Girodet-Trioson, he soon gave up historical painting to concentrate on classical landscapes. He subsequently studied under Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld and Louis Étienne Watelet. Around 1821 Bertin went on his first study trip to Rome. After returning to Paris in 1823, he made friends with his fellow students, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Caruelle d’Aligny. He was to meet both artists again in Rome in 1825. During this second sojourn in the city the artists worked together from nature, their mutual inspiration enabling them to arrive at a new, unpretentious interpretation of nature. In 1834 Bertin was made an Inspector of the Beaux-Arts. He subsequently travelled extensively, including to Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon. In the course of his journeys he produced a sub­stantial corpus of high-quality drawings, indicating that his painting activities increasingly receded into the background.