Heuvel bij een water 1773 - 1843

Georges Michel made this pencil drawing of a landscape, titled 'Heuvel bij een water,' sometime between his birth in 1763 and death in 1843. Michel lived through the French Revolution, the Napoleonic era and the Restoration, a period that fundamentally altered the relationship between artists and institutions. This landscape is a vision of nature that rejects the formal compositions of the old Royal Academy. Instead, Michel shows the raw and untamed countryside, perhaps influenced by the Barbizon school's focus on direct observation. Unlike the heroic landscapes of earlier generations, here the human figure is small and part of the natural order. Michel exhibited at the Salon, but his art defied academic expectations, hinting at the growing tension between traditional institutions and new artistic voices. To fully appreciate Michel, we need to study the art market, exhibition records, and critical reviews of the era. This helps us understand how his art challenged existing social norms and contributed to the changing role of the artist in French society.