Probably by Edouard Bertin, 'View of the Gorge at Civita Castellana', 1826-7

The French artist Eduoard Bertin first travelled to Italy in 1821 and returned many times. He travelled widely across Europe as well as in Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey. He trained in Paris under Jean Joseph Xavier Bidauld and Louis-Etienne Watelet, both advocates of open-air oil sketching. After his first trip to Italy, he returned to Paris and joined the studio of Jean-Victor Bertin (no relation). There he met Camille Corot and Theodore Caruelle d’Aligny.

Open-air landscape oil sketches were usually produced rapidly, so as to capture the changing effects of light. These sketches allowed artists to experiment with different approaches to painting and to attempt new and fresh responses to the striking and dramatic scenery. They were always intended to be references for larger oils painted later in their studios. Few artists would have thought their sketches would be seen by members of the public. This means that oil sketches are often not signed and in some cases the location of the scene is not known. Many artists in Italy, where open-air landscape sketching flourished, shared techniques and travelled together and painted similar scenes. For all these reasons, attributions can be complicated.

Bertin, Corot and D’Aligny were well aware of the theory and practice of painting oil sketches as part of the process of producing landscape oils. In 1825 all three young artists were in Italy sketching together. In the evenings they would exchange ideas, critique each other’s sketches and share ideal places to work. Their closeness led to similarities in their pencil and oil sketches. In the past this work has been attributed to D’Aligny.

The town of Civita Castellana is about 65 kilometres north of Rome. Its strategically important location led to the building of a castle in the Middle Ages. The ravine, which can be seen in this sketch, provided an important natural defence. The fortress was replaced during the Renaissance by a new castle, known as La Rocca. Its octagonal tower can be seen to the left of the composition.

Bertin adopted an approach that was popular with other artists painting oil sketches. He focused on the mid-ground and only very roughly painted the foreground in green. Pierre de Valenciennes’s book on landscape painting recommended that artists spent no more than half an hour on any open-air oil sketch so that they could best capture the effects of the light. Bertin used confident and rapid brushstrokes for the deep green of the foliage and the light on the rocks, drawing the viewer’s attention to the shadows of the central area of the ravine. The buildings on top of the cliffs are brightly lit by the sun, contrasting with the darkness below.

On Bertin’s death, his widow donated a large group of drawings from his studio to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Chartres. Among them was a drawing from the same viewpoint, dated 1826–7.