19th Century Miniature Landscape and Seascape
Where did these paintings come from?
As a gift to Gettysburg College, known as Pennsylvania College at the time, Johann Heinrich Wilbrand Stuckenberg willed his vast estate including an extensive 17th-19th century map collection after his death in London in 1903. J.H.W. Stuckenberg, and his wife Mary, were fond of the college for its progressive curriculum and support of his philosophical endeavors in publication, sociology, religion, and his native politics and culture.1 Two items that were bequeathed to the college are a pair of small paintings, one a landscape, the other a seascape.
Who painted the landscape and seascape, and why do we think so?
Previous student research into these paintings by Bailey Harper ’19 led her to conclude Charles Hoguet to be the artist.2 Although she was unable to find an L. Hoguet in art historical literature, she was able to find a Charles Hoguet. Charles Hoguet is Louis’ older brother. She notes that his style is consistent with the seascape painting to be discussed, which is accurate, but is a style shared with his brother, Louis. An attribution to Louis Hoguet is also consistent with the label affixed to the frame from Stuckenberg and the signature, LH, on the painting of the seascape.
The paintings are attributed to “L. Hoguet” which appears on a label affixed to the back of the frames and in signature on one of the paintings’ surfaces. The titles read Landschaft Mit Einem Fuhwerk und Windmuhle (Landscape with a Wagon and Windmill) and Felsige Kustenpartie mit Staffag (Beach Landscape with Fisherman), respectively. These two late nineteenth century pieces – presumed to be by German painter of French decent, Louis Hoguet – embody the rich transnational history of landscape tradition in nineteenth century Western Europe.
Other Works by Louis Hoguet to Compare:
In order to compare these paintings to other works attributed to Louis Hoguet, two paintings were found on an auction site:
Fisherman on the Coast of Normandy (translated from the original German, Fischer an der Küste in der Normandie), and the other Cliffs and Boats on the Beach (translated from the original French, Falaise et Barques sur la Plage). Stylistically and thematically are related to the seascape, but there are many similarities to the landscape as well.
Fisherman on the Coast of Normandy (date unknown) is strikingly similar to Beach Landscape with Fisherman. There are men hunched over that are slightly obscured from view, and there are vast cliffs reaching back in to the deep background that are faded into the atmosphere. Just as in Beach Landscape with Fisherman, this painting has seagulls flying close to the fisherman. Because of the similarity, we can speculate Beach Landscape with Fisherman may have been painted in or near Normandy, in Northern France.
Cliffs and Boats on the Beach, on the other hand, relates well to the landscape in terms of color, composition, and mood. The colors are bright and rich, there are peasants working on the boats, and there’s a pleasant attitude. It’s also interesting to note the differences in the language of the titles because it is known that he is a German national of French heritage.
What may have inspired Louis Hoguet?
The foreground in the landscape consists of a dirt road, a fallen tree across the roadway, and wagon tracks. Further into the distance the viewer can see robust fall foliage draping around a wagon as three men hover nearby. Just visible through the haze of atmospheric perspective, the silhouette of a windmill is visible beyond the horizon line.
There is a hint of painterly style in the subtle freedom of the brush strokes. Although they are not strikingly noticeable, the visible brushwork does not conform to the exactitude of a more classical style such as the French Academic salon style of the eighteenth century. The trees and the clouds are where the visible brushwork is most prominent, which complements the influence of the atmosphere partially precluding the deeper space. The soft light is cast from the left, over a small dune. The men are shaded, just out of the rays.
In regards of theme, mood, and tonality this painting is reminiscent of The Hay Wain (1821) by John Constable, an influential English landscapist, even if not intentionally. Constable became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 18193. His popularity bloomed over time, especially across the Channel where The Hay Wain traveled after purchase to be featured in the Paris Salon4.
The various aspects of this landscape that recall those of Constable’s work exemplify the widening popularity of this type of pastoral landscape, such as the peasant working in a charming outdoor scene. Pastoral landscape generally refers to a peaceful relationship between humans and nature, often featuring peasants working on the land surrounded in beautiful landscape. This is a perfect term to describe Landscape with a Wagon and Windmill because there is manual labor being done on the land, but the country road is so simple and gorgeous.
Pastoral landscapes, like The Hay Wain and Landscape with a Wagon and Windmill, were overcoming the prominence of history landscape in the hierarchy of subjects, especially to the Academy. History landscape in this sense refers to a landscape featuring true historical figures or even characters of Greek and Roman mythology or Catholicism.
Throughout the sixteenth to seventeenth century, historical painting was considered the elite status of subject matter while the “bottom scale” of pure landscape or still life were deemed unimportant subjects for the Academy. The Dutch and Flemish had focused on these “lower scale” subjects since the Renaissance.
The seascape, Felsige Kustenpartie mit Staffag (Beach Landscape with Fisherman), portrays one lone fishermen on the beach and three others huddling under a stone overhang. In similar fashion to the landscape, Hoguet masterfully created a weighty atmosphere in such a way the viewer can feel the density of the misty salt air combined with the heavy wind. The color palette, thought, is comprised of richer Earth hues, including a sienna clay stone overhang from the cliffs, and a deep teal sea with breaking white caps. Seagulls soar close to the beach, increasing the imposing attitude constructed by his palette and compositional choices of fishermen at work.
This seascape painting is consistent with the Romantic period in art, hitting its peak during Hoguet’s young life in the mid nineteenth century. Romanticism centers on the awe-inspiring strength of emotion, nature, and passion. A pinnacle motif of romanticism, of the sublime, is the ocean storm overwhelming egocentric man. It translates to nature, untamable and overpowering, dominating over minuscule mankind.
This stormy seascape is reminiscent of Casper David Friedrich’s The Monk by the Sea (1810) in that it is of a similar subject of the sublime, formidable nature. The representation of nature and the divine are intertwined, especially in the Flemish and Dutch traditions.5 The divine in this sense is the pure force of nature, the key component of sublimity in romanticism. Bailey Harper, the other student researching this painting, described the connection of the divine and nature through this painting as a spiritual experience telling the viewer humankind is not greater than nature6.
Nature has a command over humans that we must resign ourselves not to try to defy. The notion of humans resigning to nature’s command is a caveat to survival, principally in the case of fisherman. The sea, the cradle of a fisherman’s subsistence, is the most generous entity, but also one of the most treacherous. This attitude is represented in Hoguet’s seascape, the dependence of civilization on the “fruit of the sea.”
How do these fit into Dutch and Flemish art history?
This landscape, Landschaft Mit Einem Fuhwerk und Windmuhle (Landscape with a Wagon and Windmill), is a pastoral landscape that evokes a calmness as the viewer observes peasants taking reprieve from their trying manual labor. Peasants were a typical feature of northern traditions of genre scenes, or scenes of average daily life. Because Hoguet was a German national, he was in proximity to the artistic traditions of Northern Europe such as the Flemish and the Dutch. Since the early Renaissance in Flanders and Holland, the quintessential art form was genre painting.
Common subject choices of Flemish and Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century were the pleasant countryside around towns, including country roads, dune elevations, farm buildings, and trees lining the roads.7
Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede (1670) by Jacob van Ruisdael is a great example of a quintessential peasant genre painting from earlier Flemish tradition. This seventeenth century painting contains those aforementioned common subjects, as well as a few peasants walking down the road on the right. This painting is an important comparison because it shows the many necessities, like the windmill, the water, and the land.
This description contains the same compositional characteristics as Hoguet’s landscape painting, including the farm building and a simple road lined by foliage. Hoguet’s landscape, as a genre scene, captures the ethereal country side that could be missed when one just observes laborers in life. Rather, he transforms the meek activity into an allegory for duality of labor and relaxation. The men are in the shadow of toil, but could reach their arm into the sun rays of rest and beauty.
Hoguet’s seascape, although a sublime landscape, still can be considered a genre painting because it captures peasants waiting for work.
The landscape and seascape also fit in to French art history:
In the nineteenth century, France was faced with the work of the Barbizon School (1830-1870), just southeast of Paris, that made a break with French Academy in favor of en plein air painting and sketching. En plein air, French for out of doors, refers to a new methodology of painting outside to capture nature as it is rather than build a scene of nature in a studio.8 It brings reality into painting beyond just naturalism of the scene, but allows the capture of aesthetics and political turmoils of the topic.9
The Barbizon school worked in the landscape they painted like their predecessors in the north inspiring a new generation of modernizing artists.10 The Barbizon School became famous in Hoguet’s early life because to the French, their approach was radical; they were painting exactly what they saw in their environment rather than idealizing and constructing a background landscape in the studio. Although it is unclear whether or not Hoguet painted outdoors, his landscape and seascape are not hyper-idealized.
Romanticism‘s roots began in England, but spread across Europe. Caspar David Friedrich was actually a German painting the extreme end of the romantic. Romantic painting was especially prominent in France at this time. For example, Jacques-Louis David, an extremely popular French artist, painted The Death of Marat (1793), a very popular romantic painting. He was so popular, in fact, he became Napoleon’s primary commissioned artist.
How do these paintings fit inside a Curiosity Cabinet?
Paintings, and other art forms, were often found in Wunderkammer. Wunderkammer, or Cabinets of Curiosity, were a Renaissance phenomena focused on the rare and marvelous items of artificilia and naturalia.11
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As shown in A Corner of a Cabinet (1636), by Frans II Francken, the tight juxtaposition of art and nature was the keystone of a successful Curiosity Cabinet. The Renaissance was a time in history where there was a re-ignition of arts and sciences, all geared towards understanding the natural world and the divine. The ultimate goal of a collector was to obtain the rare and singular as an attempt to gather all-encompassing knowledge of the natural world. The interest in natural history emblazoned collectors to travel to the exotic New World and study species that were non-native to Europe.
One specific theme of Wunderkammer was that of impending death, the end of Earthly pursuits. Vanitas and memento mori are both terms referring to the understanding that all life ends and are used to describe symbolic items in works of art that recall to the viewer this notion.
Although there are no memento mori in the two Hoguet paintings, they refer to the fragility of life in different ways. The landscape, Landscape with a Wagon and Windmill, is set at dusk near the beginning of fall.
This is evident because of the side cast, soft lighting, and the slightly orange leaves in the trees. These are clues to hint fall is coming, and with fall comes the end of the harvest and the dead season, winter.
The seascape is more obviously connected to the notion of memento mori because the sublime landscape is meant to draw out fear of nature and death. The Romantic Era is about intensity of emotion, and one such emotion it revolves around is fear, including fear of death.
[1] Tara R. Wink, “Guide to the John Henry Wilbrand Stuckenberg Papers,” Gettysburg College, Musselman Library Special Collections & College Archives. (2007): Accessed October 1, 2017, 4.
[2] Bailey Harper, Molly Chason; Leah Falk, Shannon Gross, Laura Waters, and Yan Sun, “Methods of Nature: Landscapes from the Gettysburg College Collection” (2016). Schmucker Art Catalogs. 21. http://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/21, 8.
[3] Èmile Michel. Landscapes. Parkstone International, 2004. ebookcentral.proquest.com. Accessed 15 October 2017, 257.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Èmile Michel. Landscapes. Parkstone International, 2004. ebookcentral.proquest.com. Accessed 15 October 2017, 335.
[6] Bailey Harper, Molly Chason; Leah Falk, Shannon Gross, Laura Waters, and Yan Sun, “Methods of Nature: Landscapes from the Gettysburg College Collection” (2016). Schmucker Art Catalogs. 21. http://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/21, 8.
[7] Wolfgang Stechow. Dutch Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century. London: Phaidon Press, 1966, 19.
[8] National Gallery Company Limited. Corot to Monet: French Landscape Painting. London: National Gallery Company, 2009, 7.
[9] Roy Osamu Kamada. Postcolonial Romanticisms: Landscape and the Possibilities of Inheritance. Peter Lang Publishing, 2010, 4.
[10] Jean Bouret. The Barbizon School and 19th-Century French Landscape Painting. Little Brown & Company, 1973, 9.
[11] Larry Silver. Peasant Scenes and Landscapes: The Rise of Pictorial Genres in the Antwerp Art Market. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006, 217.
