Jules Dupré (1811-1889) began, like Troyon, as a china-painter, and,
like Rousseau, with whom he was for years on terms of intimate
friendship, benefited by the example of Constable, whose art he had
presumably occasion to study during a visit to England. It was from him
that he acquired the sense of movement in nature, which is so much more
pronounced in his landscapes than in Rousseau’s, whom he exceeded in
breadth of touch and in power. More particularly in his later manner he
loved to apply his colours in a thick impasto laid on to every part of
the canvas, including the sky. Only on rare occasions did he adopt the
more fluid, suave manner shown in _Morning_ (No. 2940) and _Evening_
(No. 2941), the two decorative panels executed for Prince Demidoff, and
acquired by the Louvre in 1880 at the San Donato sale. More typical of
his virile, forceful style are the twelve signed pictures by Dupré in
the Thomy Thiéry Bequest (Nos. 2864-2875), especially the fine autumn
landscape _The Pond_ (No. 2867, Plate L.), the intensely sad, sunless
_Flock in the Landes_ (No. 2871), _The Large Oak_ (No. 2873), and
_The Sunset on a Marsh_ (No. 2874), with the golden glow of the sky
reflected in the water.
Before turning to Diaz, who has been aptly called “the most romantic of
the Romanticists,” we must briefly mention Eugène Isabey (1804-1886),
who connects the art of the First Empire with Romanticism, and who
knew how to invest his historical paintings with genuinely pictorial
interest at a time when that class of subject was generally treated
from the literary and anecdotal point of view. His exuberant
temperament led him not infrequently to exaggerated movement. The
twelve pictures which bear his signature at the Louvre (Nos. 2878-2884,
2953-2956, and 2953A) are illustrative of every phase of his art. As a
landscape painter he may be considered a forerunner of Rousseau.