Charles Joseph Kuwasseg (1802 – 1877), Flamborough Head Cliffs, Yorkshire, oil on canvas, 88 x 133 cm

signed and dated lower right: “C. Kuwasseg / father / 1869 (?)” Provenance

Sale “19th Century Continental Pictures, Watercolors and Drawings”, London, Christies, June 14, 1996, lot 12 (Fisherfolk on a beach, Etretat, 1863, oil on canvas, 88 x 133 cm); Private collection

“Victorian & 19th Century Continental Picture” sale, London, Christie's, March 20, 1998, lot 67 (Fisherfolk on the Beach, Etretat, 1863, oil on canvas, 88,5 x 133 cm);

Private collection

Our painting is a view inspired by the chalk cliffs of Flamborough that the painter was able to admire during a stay in England in Yorkshire. Charles Joseph Kuwasseg is a traveling painter whose entire work transcribes his inclination for landscape painting.

The artist was born in 1802 in Trieste, into a modest Austrian family that included two other painters: his brothers Karl and Leopold. Charles Joseph was first employed in leather and carpentry workshops before beginning his artistic training in Vienna. His talents as a draftsman allowed him to enlist with Count Schomberg on a trip to America. They visited Havana, traveled through Peru and Brazil, not without braving dangers1. Charles Joseph Kuwasseg settled permanently in France after 1830, where he obtained his naturalization in 18672. He presented his paintings at the Salons in Paris, which attracted the attention of collectors and art lovers; among them King Louis-Philippe, the Count of Paris and Baron Rothschild3. Charles Joseph won several medals at the Salons of 1845, 1861 and 1863.

Charles Joseph's works were particularly popular in the 1860s, following the purchase of a pair of paintings by Emperor Napoleon III at the 1861 Salon. The two canvases described by the poet Théophile Gautier, a regular chronicler of art exhibitions, depict the famous chalk cliffs of the rocky promontory of Flamborough on the Yorkshire coast in England. Highly appreciated, both views followed Empress Eugénie into exile in Switzerland and are still in the art collection of Arenenberg Castle. An old photograph of the Empress's tea room shows the proximity between our painting and the subject treated.

During his lifetime, Charles Joseph Kuwasseg enjoyed an excellent reputation in France, England, Austria and Italy. The artist's work is better represented in English museums (the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and The Bowes Museum) than in French museums, which will undoubtedly reattribute in the future compositions previously attributed to his son Charles Euphrasie (1833-1904).

Old photograph of one of the two Views of the cliffs of Flamborough Head acquired by Napoleon III at the Salon of 1861 and hung in the tea room of the Empress Eugénie at the castle of Arenenberg in Switzerland

(Archives of the Napoleonmuseum)