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About the Artwork
With its beautifully rendered trees, grassy slopes, and water bathed in late afternoon sunlight, this painting clearly suggests Nanteuil's love of nature. In 1837 he wrote to a friend: "I often spend several hours . . . looking at beautiful plants with large leaves, cut out like sumptuous lace, tall grasses in ponds, their color silky and the beautiful reflections they make in the water, the little flowers with thousands of colours the ground is embroidered with, all provide me with a source of enjoyment." Although the forest Nanteuil described seems very real, his painting includes a satyr. Seated on a stone near a stream, the half human, half goat mythological figure seems lost in the music he plays upon his pipes. Nanteuil is most famous for his lithographs and etchings; paintings by the artist are rather rare.
Inscriptions
Signed lower left: célestin nanteuil / 1841
Provenance
Private collection, France. Paris sale, Drouot room 4, 23 November 1973, Hubert Maringe Commissaire-priseur. Galerie André Watteau, Paris. Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, Cleveland. Given to the CMA on 20 October 1977.
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Célestin François Nanteuil (French, 1813–1873)
- Date
- 1841
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- Dimensions
- Framed: 123.2 x 155.6 x 12.7 cm (48 1/2 x 61 1/4 x 5 in.); Unframed: 97 x 129.8 cm (38 3/16 x 51 1/8 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin
- Accession no.
- 1977.125
More by Celestin Nanteuil 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-00010072
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