Grotto in a Rocky Landscape

81: Grotto in a Rocky Landscape

Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont
Versailles 1790 - 1870 Paris

Private collection
Rights held by: Private collection

Barred from study at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Sarazin de Belmont studied under Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, who taught drawing to young women in his studio. Without a benefactor and the support of the traditional academic system, she financed her travels through the sale of her works. Her Salon submissions serve as documentation of her travels: Rome, Naples, and Sicily in 1824–1826, the Pyrenees in 1831, the forest of Fontainebleau in 1834, and Nantes and Brittany in 1836–1837. Between 1841 and 1865, she lived in Italy painting landscapes up and down the peninsula.

Text written and researched by Michelle Bird National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

Oil on paper, mounted on canvas
42.2 × 57.4 cm