Road in the Jura

c. 1830 or possibly c. 1834

This small sketch focuses on a few elements of an unremarkable stretch of countryside in the Jura region of eastern France: the bend in a road, the rough earth of a hillside, and trees that reach above the horizon. The simplicity of the composition suggests Rousseau painted the study quite quickly, recording the clear light and essential character of the view with few unnecessary details.

Medium	oil on wove paper, mounted on canvas
Dimensions	8 9/16 x 12 3/4 in. (21.7 x 32.4 cm) Frame: 14 9/16 x 18 7/8 x 2 1/4 in. (37 x 47.9 x 5.7 cm)
Object Number	1955.847
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	Off View

Image Caption

Théodore Rousseau, Road in the Jura, c. 1830 or possibly c. 1834, oil on wove paper, mounted on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.847

Select Bibliography

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Five, Supplement: South Gallery. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1959. Tabler, Carol Forman. Illuminations: Images of Landscape in France, 18551885. Exhibition catalogue. Huntington, NY: Heckscher Museum, 1990. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.

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Provenance

Possibly the artist (until 1868, his sale, Drouot, Paris, 27 Apr.–2 May 1868, possibly no. 92 bis);¹ [F. & J. Tempelaere, Paris, sold to Clark, 23 Jan. 1936, as Une route dans le Jura]; Robert Sterling Clark (1936–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. 1. None of the 92 paintings individually listed in the artist’s posthumous sale catalogue (Lugt 30487) seems to match this one, though no. 92 bis is described as “some studies and sketches painted on paper” (quelques études et esquisses peint sur papier) and might include this work.