Scanned from a slide by Jimmy Brown; color-corrected by Pat Cagney.

Landscape with the Journey to Emmaus

Artist Pierre Patel the Elder (French, 1605-1676)

CultureFrench

Date1652

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 27 3/8 x 36 1/2 in. (69.5 x 92.7 cm)
Overall, Frame: 38 x 46 3/8 x 3 3/4 in. (96.5 x 117.8 x 9.5 cm)

InscribedSigned and dated lower right: "P. PATEL. INVE. 1652"

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.686

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 206

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. The subject of the painting is in the lower right foreground, where a newly risen Christ meets with two of his disciples; they travel unrecognized toward Emmaus. Crumbling ruins are on the left side of the canvas, while the background is an open countryside, shown at dusk.

Label TextPierre Patel the Elder French, ca. 1605–1676 Landscape with the Journey to Emmaus, 1652 Oil on canvas In earlier European paintings, landscapes typically served as mere backdrops for religious or classical figures. By 1600, artists began to treat the landscape as a worthy subject in its own right. Consider how the scenery all but overwhelms the tiny figures in Pierre Patel’s painting. The newly resurrected Christ and two disciples are certainly important figures, but they serve here as a pretext for the landscape itself—a sweeping vista of an idyllic, open countryside beyond the crumbling, vine-draped ruins. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.686 ProvenancePrivate collection, Great Britain; sale, Christie's, London, May 29, 1952 (cat. no. 39); David M. Koetser, New York; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, 1971. Exhibition History"Vouet to Rigaud: French Masters of the Seventeenth Century," Finch College Museum of Art, New York, April 20 - June 18, 1967. (Exh. cat. no. 28). "France in the Golden Age: 17th-Century French Paintings from American Collections," Palais du Louvre, Paris, March? - April 26, 1982; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 26 - August 22, 1982; Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 18 - Nov. 28, 1982. (Exh. cat. no. 78). "French Paintings from the Chrysler Museum," North Carolina Museum of Art, May 31 - Sept. 14, 1986; Birmingham Museum of Art, Nov. 6, 1986 - Jan. 18, 1987. (Exh. cat. no. 3). "The Splendor of Ruins in French Landscape Painting, 1630-1800," Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio, March 19 - June 19, 2005; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tex., July 15 - October 15, 2005. Published References_Vouet to Rigaud: French Masters of the Seventeenth Century_, exh. cat., Finch College Museum of Art, New York, N.Y., 1967, no. 28. Pierre Rosenberg, _France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections_, exh. cat., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, France, 1982, no. 78. ISBN: 0870992953 Jefferson C. Harrison, _French Paintings from The Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., 1986. no. 3. ISBN: 0-940744-54-6 Jefferson C. Harrison, _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_ (Norfolk: The Chrysler Museum, 1991), 40, no. 32. ISBN: 0-940744-59-7, 0-940744-62-7 Stephen D. Borys, _The Splendor of Ruins in French Landscape Painting, 1630-1800_, exh. cat., Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio, 2005, 128-130. ISBN: 0-942946-04-9