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Liverpool artwork of the week 2009-48. ‘The Ruins of the Château d’Apchon’ by Auguste Bonheur at Sudley House.
A delightful bucolic scene for these dark Winter days and a reminder to visit Sudley House which is the only place you can see the art collection of a Victorian merchant in its original setting and looks particularly nice this time of year I think.
Holt bought this picture as ‘Landscape, Auvergne’ in 1868 but it was exhibited at the Paris Salon under the present title fifteen years earlier. It had been in the collection of the French minister of the interior, who acquired it under the prompting of the artist’s sister, Rosa Bonheur.
It may also be the work titled ‘Mountain Scenery in the Auvergne: Early Morn’ shown at an exhibition of contemporary French art in Liverpool in 1856. Works by the Bonheurs, Auguste and his better-known artist sister Rosa, were prominent in this exhibition, which attracted considerable interest from northern art lovers.