Rouen Cathedral, Sunrise
On View In:
Gallery 321
Artist:   Richard Parkes Bonington  
Title:   Rouen Cathedral, Sunrise  
Date:   1825  
Medium:   Oil on millboard  
Dimensions:   11 5/16 x 8 15/16 in. (28.73 x 22.7 cm) 15 11/16 x 18 7/16 x 2 1/4 in. (39.81 x 46.83 x 5.72 cm) (outer frame)  
Credit Line:   The Sheila C. and John L. Morgan Endowment for Art Acquisition  
Location:   Gallery 321  

Although Bonington died prematurely at age 25, he was a prolific virtuoso who left his mark on the development of European painting. Connoisseurs have always ranked him with Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix as one of the three pillars of French Romanticism, and with John Constable and J. M. W. Turner as the most influential British landscape painters of the 19th century. Bonington's genius as a painter was so seductive that he attracted a host of admirers and imitators in both France and England. Two of his closest friends were Delacroix and Paul Huet, while Camille Corot admitted to becoming an artist only after seeing examples of Bonington's paintings in an art dealer's shop window. Corot's oil sketch in Rome of 1826 offers an illuminating comparison with Bonington's Rouen sketch of 1825, which is concerned less with the subject depicted than with the art of quickly recording one's impressions of light, color and atmosphere in nature.

Artist/Creator(s)     
Name:   Bonington, Richard Parkes  
Nationality:   British  
Life Dates:   British, 1802 - 1828  
 
Name:   Bonington, Richard Parkes  
Nationality:   British  
Life Dates:   British, 1802 - 1828  
 

Object Description  
  
Inscriptions:   Inscription, Seal, Label and Sticker on verso: paper etiquette inscribed in pen and brown ink by th verso: red wax atelier seal with initials RPB; Bonington's letter seal with his interlaced initials  
Classification:   Paintings  
Physical Description:   sketchy image of skyline with buildings in browns and greys; lightening, slightly cloudy sky with bright clouds at bottom, grey sky in ULC  
Creation Place:   Europe, France, , ,  
Accession #:   2012.44  
Owner:   The Minneapolis Institute of Arts