Sorente

View taken from Vues d Italie et de Sicile, dessinées d après nature par A. E. Michallon, Ancien Pensionnaire du Roi a l'École de Rome; et litographiées par M M. Villeneuve, Deroi et Renoux, Paris, Lami - Denozan, 1827.

This is a collection of 20 unnumbered, finely lithographed plates, given on papier du Chine applied to paper and protected by tissue sheets; below the figured part of each plate is the title, as well as the artists' and Villain lithographic establishment's indications.

Achille-Etna Michallon was the son of sculptor Claude Michallon (1751-1799). He was one of the most significant painters of historical landscapes in the years from 1780 to 1830.

 With the painting Democritus and the Abderitans, in 1817 he was the first artist to be awarded the Prix de Rome for historical landscape, a prize instituted in 1816 at the initiative of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, of whom Michallon was a pupil. He lived in Rome until 1821 and painted ideal landscapes, following the example traced by Nicolas Poussin. He also studied with Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Victor Bertin and, in turn, was a teacher of Antoine Guindrand and Jean-Baptiste Corot, who learned from Michallion his love of light, construction of space and rejection of anecdotal subjects. Michallion convinced the young Corot to travel to Italy, for a study stay. 

Lithograph, finely hand-colored, in excellent condition.