Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Peña
Sunset
n.d.
Physical Qualities
Transparent and opaque watercolor over black chalk, Sheet: 147 x 232 mm. (5 13/16 x 9 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Friends of Art Fund
Object Number
1965.15
The son of Spanish émigrés, Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Peña was perhaps the greatest colorist of the Barbizon school, a group of French landscape painters named after a small village in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris. His colors were so luminous, his forms so multifaceted, that the critic Théophile Thoré compared his pictures to “piles of
precious stones.”
In Sunset, Diaz paints exactly what he sees—bands of dark, wet earth and distant forest, the bright red glow of the setting sun, and an incandescent sky with billowing clouds chasing each other. A brilliant observer of the chromatic variations in nature, he radically effaced all embellishments and sentiment, creating a picture that is nearly abstract.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 1965; from The Drawing Shop, New York
Shepherd Gallery Associates, New York, NY, "The Non-Dissenter," Apr. 30 - June 15, 1968.
Shepherd Gallery, New York, 'The Non-Dissenters: David through Puvis de Chavannes', May-June 1968, no. 84.
Shepherd Gallery, New York, 'The Forest of Fontainebleau: Refuge of Reality', April 21-June 10, 1972, no. 32.
Shepherd Gallery, Associates, New York, NY, "The Forest of Fontainebleau: Refuge of Reality," Apr. 21 - June 10, 1972.
Alain de Leiris and Carol Hynning Smith, University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, 'From Delacroix to Cézanne: French Watercolor Landscapes of the 19th Century', Oct. 26-Dec. 4, 1977, p. 111, no. 44; circulated to J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Jan. 9-Feb. 19, 1978; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, April 1-May 14, 1978.
Victor Carlson and Carol Hynning Smith, BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries"; circulated by the American Federation of Arts to the Guggenheim Museum, NY, 24 August - 7 October 1979; Des Moines Art Center, 19 November 1979 - 6 January 1980; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 8 February - 16 March, 1980; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1 May - 22 June 1980 ; Denver Art Museum, 12 July - 24 August, 1980.
BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the 19th and 20th Centuries from the Museum Collection," 14 October - 28 November, 1982.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Master Drawings by French Artists in the Museum's Collection," 9 May - 23 July, 1989.
Sona K. Johnson, BMA, Baltimore, "Barbizon and Impressionist Works from The Baltimore Museum of Art," circulated by Brain Trust to Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, January 11-February 16, 2003; Sakura City Museum of Art, Chiba, February 27-March 30, 2003; Okazaki City Museum, April 5-May 18, 2003; Suntory Museum, Osaka, May 24-July 6, 2003; Miyazaki Prefectural Museum, July 12-August 17, 2003.
Jay Fisher et al, 'The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas,' The Baltimore Museum of Art, June 19-Sept. 11, 2005; circulated to Birmingham Museum of Art and Tacoma Art Museum through Sept. 2006.
Shepherd Gallery, New York, 'The Non-Dissenters: David through Puvis de Chavannes', May-June 1968, no. 84.
Shepherd Gallery, New York, 'The Forest of Fontainebleau: Refuge of Reality', April 21-June 10, 1972, no. 32.
Shepherd Gallery, Associates, New York, NY, "The Forest of Fontainebleau: Refuge of Reality," Apr. 21 - June 10, 1972.
Alain de Leiris and Carol Hynning Smith, University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, 'From Delacroix to Cézanne: French Watercolor Landscapes of the 19th Century', Oct. 26-Dec. 4, 1977, p. 111, no. 44; circulated to J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Jan. 9-Feb. 19, 1978; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, April 1-May 14, 1978.
Victor Carlson and Carol Hynning Smith, BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries"; circulated by the American Federation of Arts to the Guggenheim Museum, NY, 24 August - 7 October 1979; Des Moines Art Center, 19 November 1979 - 6 January 1980; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 8 February - 16 March, 1980; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1 May - 22 June 1980 ; Denver Art Museum, 12 July - 24 August, 1980.
BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the 19th and 20th Centuries from the Museum Collection," 14 October - 28 November, 1982.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Master Drawings by French Artists in the Museum's Collection," 9 May - 23 July, 1989.
Sona K. Johnson, BMA, Baltimore, "Barbizon and Impressionist Works from The Baltimore Museum of Art," circulated by Brain Trust to Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, January 11-February 16, 2003; Sakura City Museum of Art, Chiba, February 27-March 30, 2003; Okazaki City Museum, April 5-May 18, 2003; Suntory Museum, Osaka, May 24-July 6, 2003; Miyazaki Prefectural Museum, July 12-August 17, 2003.
Jay Fisher et al, 'The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas,' The Baltimore Museum of Art, June 19-Sept. 11, 2005; circulated to Birmingham Museum of Art and Tacoma Art Museum through Sept. 2006.
Bernard Chaet, The Art of Drawing, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 3rd edition, 1983, p. 75, fig. no. 90.
'Accessions Report', The Baltimore Museum of Art News 28:1-2 (1967), p. 49 [not reproduced].
'Accessions of American and Canadian Museums', The Art Quarterly, 28:1-2 (1965), p. 107.
Sona K. Johnson et al, "Barbizon and Impressionist Works from The Baltimore Museum of Art," Tokyo: "Barbizon and Impressionist Works from The Baltimore Museum of Art" catalogue committee, 2003, no. 33, p. 61, ill.
Carlson, Victor, and Carol Hynning Smith. Master Drawings and Watercolors of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The Baltimore Museum of Art. New York, NY: The American Federation of Arts, 1979, pp. 41, ill
Inscribed: RECTO: LR, ink, 'N. Diaz'.
