Landscape

François-Auguste Ravier was initially influenced by the Barbizon tradition, but as he matured, his work became increasingly subjective and expressive. This highly worked drawing depicts the landscape around Morestel, near the artist’s native Lyon. Rather than focusing on cultivated fields of the region, Ravier preferred isolated ponds, woods, and plains that convey a poignant sense of his solitude and detachment from the Parisian art world. Ravier’s watercolors were carefully considered studio works, distillations of remembered experiences in nature. In his writing, Ravier spoke of how the most beautiful landscapes of all were those in his dreams.