NO TAN RÁPIDOS

Christa Zaat

Frits Thaulow (Norwegian painter and author) 1847 - 1906
French River Landscape from Beaulieu, ca. 1903
oil on canvas 
66 x 82 cm. 
signed 
private collection

Lot notes
In autumn 1903, Frits Thaulow was in Beaulieu, in the Département Corrèze in the south of France. He travelled south as early as April to "flee" from the Salon exhibition in Paris, which opened on 16 April that year. Thaulow was always nervous on such occasions, and this time he was exhibiting as many as eleven works. However, Thaulow had little to fear from the critics. On 29 April, the columnist "Gaspard" wrote in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet:
"And there is also poetry in the Thaulow landscapes exhibited. How could I possibly say otherwise about a painter whom I have heard even Parisians refer to as 'le grand peintre norvégien' (the great Norwegian painter)?"
Thaulow found it difficult to paint spring pictures from the location, but after travelling to Spain in May, he returned to Beaulieu, where it can be documented that he spent the period from August to November. During this period, he also visited a number of other small towns in the immediate vicinity.
The artist drew his theme for the painting in this auction from Beaulieu itself, a small town with a population of around 2,000, which had grown up in the Middle Ages around a Benedictine Monastery from the 1000s. Postcards of the town and the river La Dordogne indicate this, even though it is very difficult to establish precisely where he found the theme of the painting.
Another variation on this theme, where the artist appears to have positioned himself more directly behind the water, probably stems from the same period. Both a large (82 x 100 cm) and a small (66 x 82 cm) version of this painting exist.

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Johan Frederik Thaulow was born in Christiania, the son of the wealthy chemist, Harald Thaulow (1815–1881) and Nicoline ("Nina") Louise Munch (1821–1894). Thaulow was educated at the Academy of Art in Copenhagen in 1870–72, and from 1873–75 he studied with Hans Gude at the Baden School of Art in Karlsruhe.

After a stay in Skagen during the autumn of 1879, Thaulow returned to Norway in 1880. He became one of the leading young figures in the Norwegian art scene, together with Christian Krohg and Erik Werenskiold, and helped established the first National Art Exhibit (also known as Høstutstillingen or Autumn Exhibit) in 1882. Many of Thaulow's best known Norwegian scenes are from Åsgårdstrand, which had become an important center for artists and painters dating from the 1880s. Thaulow moved to France in 1892, living there until his death in 1906. Thaulow soon discovered that the cityscapes of Paris did not suit him. His best paintings were made in small towns such as Montreuil-sur-Mer (1892–94), Dieppe and surrounding villages from (1894–98), Quimperle in Brittany in (1901) and Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne in the Corrèze département (1903). Thaulow received a number of honors for his artistic activity, including his appointment as commander of the 2nd Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1905. He received the French Legion of Honor, Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus from Italy and the Order of Nichan Iftikhar from Tunisia. He died in Volendam, in the Netherlands. The National Gallery of Norway features 37 of his works. Other prominent displays include The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University.