Alpine Landscape: The Handegg, Switzerland

1850s

Alpine Landscape: The Handegg, Switzerland, 1850s. Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824–1904). Oil on fabric; framed: 36 x 47 x 5.5 cm (14 3/16 x 18 1/2 x 2 3/16 in.); unframed: 26.8 x 37 cm (10 9/16 x 14 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Noah L. Butkin 1980.262 This painting depicts a mountain peak near Handegg, a village just south of Lucerne, Switzerland. Tall fir trees reach upward from the dark foreground toward the light, which illuminates the sky and snowcapped mountains. Rising like church steeples, the trees almost touch the top of the canvas, conveying a feeling of spiritual striving. This expression of romantic, almost religious sentiment inspired by the power and beauty of nature is surprising for Gérôme, one of the leading artists of academic realism, a style distinguished by firm, precise drawing­. In 1851, Gérôme decorated a vase for Emperor Napoleon III of France which was offered to Prince Albert of England and is now part of the Royal Collection at St. James’s Palace, London.