Gathering Storm

Michel became acquainted with Dutch 17th-century landscape painting when he was employed as a restorer by the Louvre Museum at the beginning of the 19th century. He was an important precursor of the Barbizon artists. He became a landscape painter and worked in the vicinity of Paris, especially near Montmartre and on the plains of St. Denis to the north. Observing the landscape from a height-he was probably seated on a hilltop-Michel has painted a flat, panoramic view with a low, heavy sky threatening a storm. This painting exhibits the broad, lyrical brushstrokes and sharp contrasts in light and shadow that characterized his mature style of the 1830s.For the latest information about this object, Gathering Storm, visit the Online Collection ...