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The Artist in His Room at the Villa Medici, Rome
by Léon Cogniet
About the Artwork
Léon Cogniet was one of many artists who traveled from across Europe to Rome during the early 19th century, drawing upon the city’s ancient past and its surrounding landscape for inspiration. In this formally composed scene, the artist stands within his studio, its walls bare and colorless in contrast to the dramatic light cast through his open window.
Provenance
Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London. Purchased by the CMA in 1978.
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979). In the Light of Italy: Corot and Early Plein-air Painting. National Gallery of Art (May 26-September 2, 1996); The Brooklyn Museum (October 11, 1996-January 12, 1997); Saint Louis Art Museum (February 21-May 18, 1997). Paysages d'Italie. Les peintres du plein air 1780-1830. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (April 3-July 9, 2001). "un paese incantato" Italia dipinta da Thomas Jones a Corot. Museo Civico di Palazzo Te, Mantua, Italy (September 1-December 9, 2001). Maestá di Roma, da Napoleon all'Unita d'Italia: Da Ingres à Degas. Les artistes français à Rome. Dahesh Museum of Art, New York, NY (September 9-November 9, 2003). Rooms with Views: The Open Window in the 19th Century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (March 28-July 4, 2011). Viva Roma!. La Boverie Museum, Liège, Belgium (organizer) (April 24-August 26, 2018). Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Léon Cogniet (French, 1794–1880)
- Date
- 1817
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 58 x 51 x 7.5 cm (22 13/16 x 20 1/16 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 44.5 x 37 cm (17 1/2 x 14 9/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Accession no.
- 1978.51
More by Léon Cogniet in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009369
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