*This painting is sold but the artist is regularly available in our inventory		Henri Joseph Harpignies* French, 1819-1916 Route dans la Ville Oil on canvas 8 x 17 1/4 inches (20.5 x 43.9 cm) 13 1/2 x 22 1/2 in. framed Signed and dated lower left: H Harpignies 1883 Henri Joseph Harpignies, a widely acclaimed landscape artist both in oil and watercolor, was born in Valenciennes on July 28, 1819. He did not start to paint seriously until the age of 27 when he became a student of Jean Achard, also a landscapist. Under Achard’s tutelage he traveled to Holland, Brussels, and Flanders to study the northern landscapists of the 17th century. Shortly after returning to France he left again, this time for Italy, where he met many of the artists of the Villa Medici in Rome. During this time, he became interested in the work of Camille Corot, whose influence is apparent in the broad, confident stroke and clear palette of Route dans la Ville. In 1852 Harpignies returned to France to establish his own studio in Paris and met the artists Jean-Léon Gérôme and Jean-Louis Hamon, both of whom were at the beginnings of their careers. A year later he moved outside of Paris to continue painting en plein-air, where he met Daubigny, Diaz, Dupré, Millet, and Rousseau – all first-generation members of the Barbizon school—to paint in the countryside near Fontainebleau Forest. In the early years of his career from 1853 through 1856, Harpignies, under the influence of Corot and of the Barbizon painter Constant Troyon, experimented with figural compositions, but very quickly he shifted his focus to pure landscapes. Harpignies made his Salon debut in 1853 and continued to exhibit regularly thereafter, winning medals in 1866, 1868, 1869, the Legion d’honneur in 1875, and the Grand Prix at the Exposition Universelle of 1900. Like many of his fellow Barbizon painters, Harpignies did not confine himself to a single region in which to paint: his canvases depict forests, villages, rivers, and seas, as well as the south of France and Italy. In Route dans la Ville, he tenderly paints a small village, probably near the outskirts of Paris, at sunset. A sandy dirt road leads into the distance of the composition, inviting the viewer to wander among the humble buildings of the village. To the right of the road, a simple, whitewashed house stands bordered by dense, green hedges. Beyond it, the road forks, and a solitary woman dressed in pious black with a white bonnet passes below the nave of a church. Three more houses stand at the distant left, where the gravel road disappears into waves of green impasto that form gently sloping fields. A burning orange sunset glows above the scene; masked by a few dark clouds and a tree on the horizon, it casts a warm tone on the green fields and adds a romantic note to the quiet village. The composition is painted in broad, loose strokes and gentle waves of clear color that lend the view a confidence and lyricism, vitiating the humility of the village and creating a scene of inviting sweetness. In this small canvas, Harpignies paints with a freedom, vitality, and sketch-like intimacy that typifies the best of his work. The work of Harpignies can be found in many private collections and museums throughout Europe and the United States, including the Louvre, London National Gallery, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Chicago Art Institute, and the Washington National Gallery.