Le phare de Gênes ("The Genoa lighthouse") by Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidault

Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidault (later spelled Bidauld) studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, then moved to Paris in 1783, working for the art dealer Dulac, for whom he copied Dutch landscape painters (Berchem, Potter, Wouwerman...). A contemporary of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes and a pupil of Joseph Vernet in Paris between 1783 and 1785, he benefited from the advice of these two great landscape painters, and shared their preoccupation with depicting the air, in other words, light, atmosphere and its variations.

His art dealer financed his trip to Italy (1785-1790), where he studied landscapes exclusively. Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidault became used to painting on the spot: "M. Bidault [...] had pushed his passion for landscapes to the point of settling for months on end in front of a site, with a three- or four-foot canvas, painting on the spot all day [...] despite the accidents of the weather, and leaving his post only after finishing his painting" (Désiré Raoul-Rochette, "Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de M. Bidault"). Despite this practice of working outdoors, this landscape has been recomposed in the manner of a historical landscape, consisting of separate planes through which he constructs his perspective, according to the well assimilated principles of 17th-century classical landscape.

He received a number of official commissions on his return from Rome: in 1791, Charles IV of Spain commissioned him to paint four canvases for the Casita del Labrador in the royal palace of Aranjuez. In 1807, he painted four canvases for the Salon Murat at the Élysée Palace in Paris. In 1817 and again in 1822, he painted two compositions for the Galerie de Diane at the Château de Fontainebleau. Finally, in 1818, he was commissioned to paint canvases for the château de Maisons.

The port of Genoa is a motif that has already been treated by Claude Gelée, known as Le Lorrain, a view now conserved in the Louvre, but which remains relatively rare. The first Ligurian port, Genoa was already linked to Rome by the Aurelia Way in imperial times, before the maritime republic experienced fierce struggles against Pisa and Venice. Towards the end of the 18th century, the aristocratic Republic was swept away by revolutionary convulsions. The Ligurian port was a strategic point of entry for many goods, some of which were transported as far as Switzerland, which is why the boat depicted is flying two Swiss flags. The city put up heroic resistance during the famous siege of 1800, supported by Masséna's French troops, before being incorporated into Napoleon's Empire until the emperor's fall. In 1815, it became part of Piedmont.

The reference to Le Lorrain is evident in this painting, with the golden, rose-tinted light characteristic of the painter's harbor views at sunrise to sunset, as in the landscape with the embarkation at Ostia of Saint Paula Romana preserved in the Prado Museum in Madrid. The animation of the foreground, with figures unloading sacks and barrels, is absorbed into the shadows, leaving the sky between lavender blue and golden pink to provide a powerful decorative effect.

Marie-Madeleine Aubrun, « La tradition du paysage historique et le paysage naturaliste dans la première moitié du XIX^e siècle français », L’Information d’histoire de l’art, n^o 2,1968, p. 63-72.

Anna Ottani Cavina, Paysages d’Italie, les peintres du plein air, Paris, RMN, 2001.

Suzanne Gutwirth, « Jean-Joseph Bidauld. Une sensibilité néoclassique », Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld (1758-1846). Peintures et dessins [cat. exp. Carpentras, musée Duplessis ; Angers, musée des Beaux-Arts ; Cherbourg, musée Thomas-Henry, 1978], Nantes, imp. Chiffoleau, 1978, n.p.

Désiré Raoul-Rochette, « Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de M. Bidault », 6 octobre 1849, Procès-verbaux de l’Académie des beaux-arts, 1845-1849, Paris, École des Chartes, 2008, t. VIII, p. 456-457.