RAVIER, Auguste - b. 1814 Lyon, d. 1895 Morestel

Francois-Auguste Ravier, French painter. In 1832 he went to Paris to become a notary but, after discovering his love for art, studied with Jules Coignet (1798-1860) and Théodore Caruelle d’Aligny (1798-1871). Between 1840 and 1845-46 he made several trips to Rome, where he painted oil studies reminiscent of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, such as Villa at Rome (Musée du Louvre, Paris). He finally settled near Lyon (at Crémieu c. 1854; Morestel in 1868) and found his landscape subjects locally.

Although he seldom exhibited, he did not isolate himself. He respected Turner, whose work he knew and to whom his work has been compared, particularly in the foreground earth tones and atmospheric effects of his watercolours. Corot, Charles-François Daubigny and Louis Français were among his friends. In 1884 he lost the sight of one eye but recovered and authorized Boussod & Valadon (his Paris dealers from 1883 to 1886) to submit his watercolours for the first time to the Salon in Paris, where they were accepted that year.

By 1889 Ravier was totally blind.

Crépuscule

The artist here paints the cr�puscule, or the time of day just after sunset and before twilight. A rocky cliff, at left, overlooks a river basin and the edge of a thick forest. The painting is likely set near Savoie, in the French Alps, where Ravier moved in 1852. The landscape is painted with quick, short strokes of the brush, leaving large areas of the ground layer visible.