Gilles-François-Joseph Closson, 'The Cascade at Tivoli', about 1824-29

Gilles-François-Joseph Closson was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1798. He started his training in Paris in 1817. In 1825 he travelled to Italy, having won a grant for the journey. Closson was following a well-trodden path for European artists, for whom a period in Italy was considered an essential part of their training. The combination of famous landmarks, well-known sites painted by renowned artists such as Claude, Gaspard Dughet and Claude Vernet, the opportunity to study paintings by Renaissance masters and the chance to meet other artists from across Europe drew young painters particularly to Rome and Naples. While there, many artists would experiment with painting landscape oil sketches in the open air. This became widespread later in the nineteenth century, especially among the Impressionists. However, earlier in the century it was not common practice. Oil paintings were most often produced in studios, and if artists referred to sketches it was usually to pencil sketches rather than oil sketches.

Closson’s oil sketch of the Falls at Tivoli shows both his technique and his aims. The picture is painted from the bottom of the gorge. Closson cropped out the Temple of Vesta, which is to the right of the buildings at the top. He focused on capturing the contrasts between the white, crashing water and the deeper, darker, verdant foliage that surrounds it. The clouds above the buildings accentuate the height of the cliffs, but also suggest a slow movement across the sky. The angles of the falls and of the cliffs across from them meet in the centre and then draw our eye downwards along the line of the river. As the sketch is unfinished, we can see how Closson worked. Before applying his paints, he used pencil to mark out the areas of the composition for him to focus on. The underdrawing is visible. Whether deliberately or not, the unfinished parts of the picture emphasise the completed centre and the effects of light on the rapidly moving water. Closson recorded the elements of the scene that he felt he would need in future. This sketch, along with many others, was destined for his studio.

Closson returned to Belgium in 1829 and became professor of the Liege Academy in 1838. He was moderately successful in his lifetime. When he died, his wife donated his sketches and the rest of the contents of his studio to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Liège. He was almost completely unknown until a 1994 exhibition of his sketches that had been privately owned, including this one.