The road to impressionism

Magazine Antiques, July, 2003 by Miriam Kramer

Josephine Coffin Chevallier and John Bowes were married in 1852. Initially they lived in France, and as a wedding gift Bowes, an Englishman, bought his French bride the Chateau du Bany in Louveciennes, formerly the home of Louis XV's mistress The couple were enthusiastic about life in France, particularly the art. They attended many exhibitions and Salons, and bought extensively Eventually they moved to the north of England where Bowes had extensive estates. Under the terms of their wills their County Durham house became the Bowes Museum.

A selection of nineteenth-century paintings from that museum is on view at the Wallace Collection in London. Entitled The Road to Impressionism: Nineteenth-Century French Paintings from the Bowes Museum, the exhibition is on view until August 3. Twenty works from the Bowes Museum and five borrowed from other museums illustrate the birth of the impressionist movement. Howard Coutts of the Bowes Museum is the curator of the exhibition. He wrote the accompanying catalogue, which also has contributions by Adrian Jenkins and Amy Barker. Copies maybe ordered by telephoning 44-20-7563-9522.

RELATED ARTICLE: Two-handled cup designed by Sir William Chambers (1723-1796) and marked by Louisa Courtauld (1729-1807) and George Cowles (d. 1811), London, 1770-1771. Silver, height 11 5/8 inches. Courtauld institute Gallery.

The Yellow Wood-pecker with Black Spots, Pl. 333 and p. 259 from vol. 3 of George Edwards, A Natural History of Uncommon Birds... (4 vols.; London, 1743-1751). Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, the Rothschild Collection, National Trust; photograph by Mike Fear.

View at Omens, by Gustave Courbet (1819-1 877), 1864. Signed "Gustave Courbet" at lower left. Oil on canvas, 40 3/8 by 56 15/16 inches. Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, England.