Louis Ducros akaAbraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros orDu Cros, as appears on his birth certificate (Moudon, 21 July 1748[1] – Lausanne, 18 February 1810[2]), was aSwisspainter,water-colourist andengraver, and was a main figure in the 'pre-Romantic' movement.
Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe was one of three sons of Jeanne-Marie Bissat and Jean-Rodolphe Du Cros, a writing and drawing master ("maître d'écriture et de dessin") at Moudon[1][3] and laterYverdon College. He was born inMoudon (canton of Vaud) and not in Yverdon, as often repeated in error in several sources from the earliest days on,[4] an error, no doubt, attributable to the fact that Du Cros, who grew up in Yverdon as a boy,[5] thus considering himself to be "from Yverdon", attached "d'Yverdun" as a kind ofepitheton ornans to his name,[6] as did his friends, and biographers... He was educated at the college of Lausanne, where his parents destined him to go into commerce, to no avail. Du Cros preferred to go toGeneva in 1769, to study for 2 years in a private academy under ChevalierNicolas-Henri-Joseph de Fassin, a painter fromLiège formed in the Flemish tradition.[4] It is probable that he left for a voyage to Flanders with his master,[3] in 1771,[5] after which he returned to Geneva, where he came into contact with the banker-collectorFrançois Tronchin and the naturalistCharles Bonnet. Ducros became friends with the Genevois painterPierre-Louis De la Rive, with whom, between 1773 and 1776, he copied Dutch and Flemish paintings (byvan Ruisdael,Philips Wouwermans,Nicolas Berghem, ...)[5] from the Tronchin collection[7] and realised watercolours in the Geneva countryside. Sketching and paintingen plein air, he became fascinated by the analysis and recording of natural phenomena.[8]
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Accompanied by the fellow Vaudois engraverIsaac-Jacob La Croix (CH, b.Payerne, 28 Dec.1751 - † after 1800), who had worked in the workshop ofChristian von Mechel inBasel, he departed for theItalian Peninsula In the summer of 1776[8] where he established himself inRome, capital of thePapal States, at the end of that year. In 1778 he found employment as a specialist intopographical landscapes with Nicolas Ten Hove, a Dutch antiquary. That offered him the chance to be employed In March 1778 by two Dutch noblemen, Willem Carel Dierkens and Willem Hendrik van Nieuwerkerke,[9] to accompany them - later to be joined by Ten Hove and Nathaniel Thornbury - on a four-month voyage (from 10 April to 12 Aug.)[10] to Naples and itshinterland, theMezzogiorno, the islands ofSicily andMalta where he created close to three hundred watercolours (held currently by theRijksmuseum in Amsterdam, in 3 leather bound albums entitled "Voyage en Italie, en Sicile et à Malte - 1778"[11][12][13]). The trip took them to theKingdom of Naples inSouthern Italy (Naples,Avellino,Canosa,Bari,Brindisi,Gallipoli,Taranto,Reggio Calabria), and, crossing theStrait of Messina, on a visit to theKingdom of Sicily (Messina,Taormina,Catania,Syracuse), followed by an embarkation for Malta andGozo, still parts of the Monastic State of theKnights of St. John at the time, then returning to Sicily (Agrigento,Palermo) and, finally, reaching Naples, their point of departure, by sea.[10]
He stayed in Rome from 1777 till 1793 at different locations in theCampo Marzio, the historic centre of Rome andplace to be for artists and antiquarians as well as passing foreigners in the 18th-C.,[14] where he was working as a landscape painter, which was still considered the lesser art form at the time. Since he was unable to take on large religious commissions, which were reserved for Catholic painters, he realised that his salvation lay in passing foreigners, who were fond of picturesque views of the Italian countryside.[8]
In 1780, Ducros is said to have commissioned an etching after one of hismarine paintings toRaffaello Sanzio Morghen, a young engraver who had just entered the renowned studio of the highly skilled engraverGiovanni Volpato.[14] A series of 8 prints by Morghen after Ducros was later published between 1784 and 1786.[15]
With remarkable judgement, Ducros joined forces with Volpato, who – although also considered a foreigner in thePapal States as he was born in theVenetian Republic[16] –, enjoyed great prestige for his reproduction prints ofRaphael'sStanze (a suite of 4 reception rooms decorated byRaffaello Sanzio da Urbino in the first half of the 16th-C. forPope Julius II and later forPope Leo X, which are located on the 3rd floor of theApostolic Palace, now part of theVatican Museums) and benefited from the protection ofPope Pius VIBraschi.[8]
In 1780, this collaboration with Volpato lead to the publication of a first series of twenty-four large-format hand-coloured engravings,[17][18] in Rome, after his own watercolours depicting"Views of Rome and the Surrounding Countryside" ("Vues de Rome et de ses environs"), such as the watercolour "The Temple of Peace" aka "Ruins of the Basilica of Maxentius in the Roman Forum" (1779), a version of which is held at theYale Center for British Art.[19] From 1787 to 1792 Volpato worked on a second series, published in 1792, of 14 interior views of theMuseo Pio-Clementino,[20] also in collaboration with Louis Ducros.[21][22]
In Rome, bustling street scenes featuring contemporaries in local attire became a successful genre in the 2nd half of the 18th century. Popular with tourists on theirGrand Tour, they were an important source of income for foreign artists such asJacques Sablet and Louis Ducros, both natives of the Swiss canton ofVaud. The pair worked briefly together in 1781-1782 to produce plain and coloured etchings. During that period, they published a series of twelve engravings, entitledScènes et costumes italiens (Italian Scenes and Costumes). The engravings andaquatints, which excel at fine-grained detailing, were drawn by Sablet and engraved by Ducros to imitatewash ("lavis" in French),[23] a technique perfected byJean-Baptiste Le Prince to create the illusion of an original drawing.[24] In 1782 Ducros also executed a large composition inwash together with Sablet:"Scène d'enterrement dans un cimetière" (Burial scene in a cemetery), in a landscape format, with numerous figures arranged in the manner of low-reliefs.[25]
In 1782, Ducros opened his own workshop on the Strada della Croce,[16] which also served as a very successful place of business for the next decade. He sold his works and engravings made with Volpato, Raffaello Morghen (Volpato's pupil and son-in-law) and his compatriot Jacques Sablet, but also views by competing artists such asFrancesco Piranesi andLouis-Jean Desprez. The newspapers began to talk about him and wealthy travellers frequently visited his studio.[8]
So, in 1782, he received a commission from theGrand Duke Paul Alexandrovitch of Russia for two oil paintings: theGrand Duke Paul and the Grand Duchess Maria at Tivoli and theGrand Duke Paul and his Suite at the Forum (both inSaint-Petersburg,Pavlovsk Palace).[8] And, in 1783, he got a commission fromPope Pius VI, who asked to accompany him toTerracina to choose the viewpoint[26] for a painting calledPius VI Visiting the Drainage Works at thePontine Marshes (now inPeter & Paul Fortress, Saint-Petersburg) and in 1786 Ducros produced another version of the same event :Visit ofPius VI to thePontine Marshes (now inPalazzo Braschi, Rome). By 1783 he had probably already begun to paint the large-scale watercolours that definitively established his notoriety.
In 1784,Gustav III of Sweden became his largest purchaser. The king's collection, containing a number ofwash prints such as"The Sacrifice to Venus" and"The Sacrifice to Love", is still held today at theDrottningholm Palace,[27] where aMuseum of Antiquities was built in his honour shortly after the king's demise on 29 March 1792 following an assassination attempt two weeks earlier at a masqueraded ball.[28]
But his primary commissioners were still English noblemen on a Grand Tour of Europe, for exampleSir Richard Colt Hoare, MilordFrederick Hervey, theEarl of Bristol, and Lord Breadalbane.[10][29] In 1786 he had met Sir Richard Colt Hoare, a banker and art collector, who became his most important patron and who bought 13 of his landscapes between 1786 and 1793, which he exhibited in his castle atStourhead in Wiltshire, where the youngRomantic painterWilliam Turner (1775–1851), aprotégé of Colt Hoare, could admire them.[8] Colt Hoare is said to have stated that "it is to Ducros that the first knowledge and power of watercolours must be attributed".[10][30]
These landscapes[31] included :"The Ruins of the Forum of Nerva with the Colonacce" (c. 1786),"The Stables of the Villa Maecenas""Lake Trasimene, Early Morning","View of Cività Castellana" ,"The Interior of the Colosseum, Rome" ,"TheArch of Constantine, Rome","The Arch of Titus, Rome","The Ponte Lucano and the Tomb of the Plautii near Tivoli","The Falls of Tivoli","The Falls of the Velino into the Nera near Terni","The Ruins of Augustus's Bridge over the Nera at Narni","The River Nera by an Ilex Grove" and"The Valley of the Nera" (all in the National Trust collections at Stourhead, Wiltshire).
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( Mario Verdone writes that Ducros travelled to Sicily and Malta between 1787 and 1789,[26] but that remains to be seen as other sources place those visits a lot later or a lot sooner depending on which trip he may be referring to[see infra & supra], unless Ducros took still another trip around this time...)
The unrest arising from theFrench Revolution led to the expulsion of many French (and French speaking) from the Papal States. Ducros, accused of being aJacobin, was also expelled - in spite of the efforts to intervene on his behalf by Princess Sofia Albertina, the sister of the Swedish King Gustav III - on 12th[26] of February 1793, on direct orders of Cardinal Zelada, on a day's notice, with his belongings confiscated and his private collection looted;[32] forced to abandon his studio and his business and virtually ruined, he took refuge for a few months in mountainousAbruzzo, painting large watercolours of these still little-visited territories (e.g. surroundings ofLicenza,Monte Velino, theLiri valley, theRoveto valley andCapistriello).[10][33] Unable to return to Rome, he settled inNaples until 1799, in the parish of S. Giuseppe a Chiaia,[10] where he created numerous works depictingCampania andMount Vesuvius.[10][34] He sold some of his works to the diplomat and geologistWilliam Hamilton and somemarines (seascapes) toLord Acton, Prime Minister of theKingdom of Naples at the time, in charge of the reorganisation of the Neapolitan fleet ofFerdinand IV ofBourbon, for whom Ducros produced a series of views of the shipyards ofCastellamare di Stabia.[8] Ducros sold at least two prints featuring theVelino andAniene waterfalls to Lord Breadalbane.[35]
Ducros went back toMalta for a second time in 1800 and 1801,[3] where he painted a series of large views ofLa Valletta for the GeneralThomas Graham, heading the British troops who had recently conquered the island afterNapoleon's troops had invaded Malta in 1798. These include e.g. theView of the Grand Harbour, Valletta, now in Lausanne, at thePalais de Rumine; another version is inLa Valletta, at theNational Museum of Fine Arts (MUŻA).
Financially strained by the bankruptcy of his Neapolitan banker, Ducros returned toSwitzerland in the summer of 1807, first of all toNyon, where his brother Rodolphe Du Cros was a pastor,[33] then toLausanne, where he started to give private drawing lessons and tried, unsuccessfully, to convince the government of the Canton of Vaud to set up an Academy of Painting.[8] InGeneva, he was named an honorary member of the Society of Arts in 1807. He was even more fortunate inBern, where he exhibited his work and where he was supported by Sigmund Wagner, a prominent collector and art dealer.[8] InBern, the city authorities appointed Ducros professor of painting at the Academy in September 1809, but he died, ofapoplexy,[2] on 18 February 1810 inLausanne, before having been able to assume the post.
Ducros is notable among water-colourists of his time for his large canvases, limited palette and forceful tones (achieved through application ofgum) which allowed his paintings to be hung alongside oils at exhibitions. Ducros sold some of his paintings, including several toSir Richard Colt Hoare, at whose estate of Stourhead they are still kept. However, he retained the majority of his paintings to use as the basis for engravings, which he readily sold to 'Grand Tour' travellers.[36]
His landscapes are, for the most part, kept in theCantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne (after the State ofVaud had bought his entire studio contents in 1816)[3] and at the English estates ofStourhead andBramall Hall. Other than the 13 watercolour paintings held at Stourhead, TheNational Trust collections in the UK harbour a number of other works by Ducros at estates under their patronage: 3 atDunham Massey (Cheshire), 3 atFlorence Court (County Fermanagh) and 6 atCoughton Court (Warwickshire).[37]
All major museums hold a nice selection of Ducros'oeuvre :The MET,[38] theBritish Museum,[39] theRijksmuseum,[40]Drottningholm Palace,Lövstad Castle,[10]Nationalmuseum,[41] state museums in Russia, etc. Most is not on permanent view due to the fragility of the medium itself, best preserved in controlled dry and dark conditions.
Source:[8]
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Imbued with the harmonious vision of the world of the minor Swiss masters, Ducros at first produced transparenttopographical watercolours, such as the "Dessins de mon voyage dans les Deux-Siciles et à Malte" (1778), and other works in which the distribution of trees and the drawing of foliage bear witness to the heritage ofClaude Lorrain. But his first "Roman" works show his ability to assimilate and reveal the rapid diversification of the means used to paint the landscape. He owes most of his skills to the engraverGiovanni Battista Piranesi: the use of dynamic imaging, the manipulation of landscape elements, the importance of scale, the use of large formats, all of which Ducros was able to integrate into his own vision without appropriating either the language or the theses of his illustrious predecessor. The prints made with Volpato, etchings watercoloured by hand, celebrate the marriage of the tradition of the great reproduction prints of which Volpato is the heir and the artisan practice of coloured engravings in the "manner ofJohann Ludwig Aberli" that Ducros introduced in Italy.
Ducros drew the scenes he chose with a fidelity that could not fail to make De la Rive affirm that «this reproduction of reality is due to the use of thecamera obscura».[42]
The mature watercolours reveal a restless artist whose works betray a progression towards shadow and enclosed spaces. The ancient ruins are becoming more and more overrun with vegetation. Thunderstorms, storms and volcanic eruptions bring the watercolours to life, no doubt in response to a demand from Anglo-Saxon patrons fond of the sublime and theneo-Gothic. Ducros became less and less a topographer and more and more a director. Both in the format of his works and in the intensity of the watercolours, often enhanced withgouache, or even oil, and covered with varnish orgum arabic, the painter tried to compete with oil painting. He also framed his watercolours and covered them with glass in order to be able to exhibit them in public. A protagonist ofpre-Romanticism, Ducros contributed to the affirmation of landscape painting as an autonomous genre.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)...Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Du Cros, ou Ducros, né à Moudon le 21 juillet 1748, et non à Yverdon, où on le fait naître à tort... Louis Du Cros fit ses premières études au collège de Lausanne. Ses parents le destinaient au commerce, mais, poussée par une vocation irrésistible, il partit à Genève, où la vie artistique commençait à s'éveiller.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)Bern, Hr. Ducros von Yverdün, welcher sich in Rom viel Ehre macht, arbeitet, gemeinschaftlch mit Hrn. Volpati, an einer Sammlung von gemälten Römischen Prospecten, wovon bereits 12 Stücke, in gleichem Format, wie die "Schule von Athen", und 12 in halber Gröβe, fertig sind. Hr. Ducros gravirt Kupferplatten, welche nur die Umrisse enhalten; aber unter seiner sowol, als des Hrn. Volpati Aussicht, werden dieselben von jungen Künstlern so ausgemalhlt, daβ sie von Originalzeichnungen kaum zu unterscheiden sind. Diese Prospekte finden ungemeinen Beyfall, man bezahlt das Stück von den gröβern mit 4 Zechinen, von den kleinern mit 2.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)Biography : Ducros, Abraham Louis Rodolphe or Ducroz: Swiss, 18th – 19th century, male. Born April 1748, in Yverdon; died 10 February 1810, in Lausanne. Painter (including gouache), watercolourist, engraver, draughtsman. History painting, architectural views, interiors with figures, landscapes, landscapes with figures. Ducros, who seems to have been self-educated spent the greater part of his artistic life in Italy, which puts him among the number of artists who succumbed to the fashion of the Grand Tour at the end of the 18th century. He lived in Italy.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)...but the advancement from drawing to painting in water-colours did not take place till after the introduction into England of the drawings of Louis du Cros, a Swiss artist, who settled at Rome; his works proved the force, as well as consequence, that could be given to the unsubstantial body of water-colours, and to him I attribute the first knowledge and power of water-colours. Hence have sprung a numerous succession of Artists in this line; a Turner, a Glover, a Nicholson, Reinagle, De Wint, Nash, cum multis aliis.
During a long residence in Italy I had frequent occasion to observe the system, and mark the progress of this ingenious Artist; and with regret I found that his superior merit began to create him enemies, who endeavoured to lessen the merit of his works, by questioning their durability. On this occasion I must, in justice, stand forth his advocate; for I have in my own collection eleven of his large drawings, which are now as brilliant as they were thirty years ago. With protection from light and damp, the durability of water-colours cannot be questioned. The gradual progress which Du Cros made in strength of colouring may be very visibly traced in the fine specimens of his taste and execution which this apartment presents. The first drawing represents a view of the Lake of Thrasymene, where the Romans, under the Consul Flaminius, experienced so signal a defeat from the Carthaginian General, Hannibal. The time of day is early morn, which gives the subject a grey and apparently faded tint. N° 2. The next is a view of Tivoli. N° 3. The Tomb of Munatius Plancus, on the road between Rome and Tivoli. N" 4. A view at Civita Castellana. These four were the earliest of his drawings which entered my collection; and the increase of strength is visible progressively from the first to the last number. N° 5. Next the door in the upper range is a Souterrain view of Mecaenas's Villa at Tivoli; and (N° 6) beneath is an interior view of the Colysseum or Amphitheatre at Rome. N° 7 is a view of the magnificent Bridge built by the Emperor Augustus at Narni; and (N° 8) beneath it is a Scene on the River which flows down to Terni from the celebrated Waterfall. N° 9. In the next compartment is another view on the same river, with a grove of luxuriant ilex trees. Beneath it is the Arch of Constantine at Rome, which may be considered as one of the most laborious as well as one of the most happy efforts that were ever made in water-colours. Another chef-d'oeuvre of Du Cros' pencil remains to be described : it represents the stupendous Fall of the River Velino into the Nar, in that point of view in which it seldom is, but always ought to be seen; viz. en face, from the opposite banks of the river; whereas the Cicerone of the country (unless a hint is given to the contrary) generally conducts the stranger to the summer-house on the eminence, from whence he looks down upon the foaming gulf. The views are so totally distinct in their nature, that the cataract should be seen from each point. One of the great excellences of this Artist was the just and natural delineation of water, particularly where spray and vapour were expressed; and in this subject he has succeeded most admirably, and without any of the borrowed assistance of white paint.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)Ha egli dipinto di fresco per Milord Breadalbane le due famose cadute del Velino, e dell' Aniene, e scegliendo in ambedue un giudizioso punto di vista ha schivaro quell' orrore, che sogliono ispirare simili oggetti. (Italian) - He has freshly painted for Milord Breadalbane the two famous waterfalls of the Velino, and of the Aniene, and by choosing a judicious point of view in both, he has avoided the sense of horror, which such subjects usually inspire. (translation)
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)