Fontanesi focused on a slice of nature as far as the eye could see.

Antonio Fontanesi first visited Crémieu, in the Dauphiné (department of Isère) in France, in 1858, when he was hosted by the Lyonnais painter François-Auguste Ravier, with whom he forged a profound, long-lasting friendship. Thanks to Ravier, Fontanesi came into contact with the circle of Lyonnais landscape painters - including Louis Carrand, François Vernay, Adolphe Appian and Joseph-Alfred Bellet du Poisat - who frequented the house in Crémieu, attracted by the beautiful location. During that period, Fontanesi spent the summer and early autumn studying hard to capture particular naturalistic features and lighting effects. 

This is the case of the carefully thoughtout Dintorni di Crémieu (Near Crémieu), in which the rendering of the landscape appears to be the fruit of subtle research both in the chromatic shading in hues of green, earth and the grey-blue of the sky, and in the paint application interwoven with transparencies and effects that succeed in capturing the changing land and light. Fontanesi focused on a slice of nature as far as the eye could see. The foreground is in shadow, as was often the case in his paintings, while the middle ground and the background convey a subtle lighting that draws the eye towards the horizon disappearing into the distance. 

The centre line of the painting is emphasised by a country road, which resembles a sort of trail dotted with light. The slopes on the left and right create some effective contrasts thanks to the foliage of the trees that form shadowy wings. Other slopes make way to provide a glimpse of a plain opening out in the middle ground, behind which we can glimpse more open spaces. An elegant handwritten label on the back of the painting states: “No. 15/ Prof. Antonio Fontanesi / View of the Dauphiné / Property of Countess Sofia di Bricherasio.” A descendant of Cacherano di Bricherasio, Sofia was born in 1867 and cultivated her love of painting first, for a short time, with Francesco Brambilla and then, in around 1886, with Lorenzo Delleani, with whom she developed a friendship and mutual esteem, as well as being his pupil. Given Delleani’s great admiration for Fontanesi, it would be no surprise if the artist himself encouraged this purchase. The number 15 on the handwritten label probably referred to a list of works that belonged to the countess and that, after her death at Miradolo castle in 1950, were largely dispersed. A patron and philanthropist, Sofia di Bricherasio bequeathed all her possessions to Don Luigi Orione’s Piccola Opera della Divina Provvidenza: it is likely that the painting was sold shortly after 1950 to support the activities of the religious institute. We do not currently have any documents that would allow us to establish how the painting entered the collection of Federico Cerruti, although we can suppose that it was already in his possession when Angelo Dragone published it as an unseen piece in 1977, dating it to between 1860 and 1865. It was subsequently published again in 2001 by Piergiorgio Dragone, who dated it to “around 1862” and placed it alongside Countryside in the Dauphiné - also in the Cerruti Collection - and A Road to Creys. 

Virginia Bertone