Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Landscape with a Mountain Village and a Steam Engine in the Distance

Charles-François Eustache
1820-1870

Landscape with a Mountain Village and a Steam Engine in the Distance

1860s
10 1/8 x 16 5/8 inches (257 x 422 mm)
Graphite, crayon, pastel.
2008.47

Gift of Patricia and Henry Tang.

Notes
Born in Paris, Eustache was a landscape artist who traveled extensively. He visited the Far East with his teacher Prosper Marilhat, made two trips to Egypt, and moved frequently within France. Many of his images relate to these journeys, ranging from Egyptian temples to the Normandy coast. While Eustache exhibited at the Salon several times around 1850, his work is often singular in style, not adhering to academic standards, which scholars have attributed partly to his regular use of hashish. He was experimental in technique and medium, creating small- and large-scale works and alternating among oil paint, pastel, and charcoal. This sweeping landscape is unusual in Eustache's oeuvre as it contains evidence of modern life visible in the train emerging from the mountains. It may have been created during his stay in the Nivernais region in central France, where his in-laws owned a forge and foundry and where he became interested in depicting mechanical forms.
Inscriptions/Markings
Watermark: Letters "IHS" with cross extending from crossbar of "H", inside large trefoil (Christogram).
Associated names
Tang, Henry S., former owner.
Tang, Henry S., Mrs., former owner.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department