Paul-Adolphe Rajon (1843–1888): Pyrenees Landscapes
This watercolour forms part of a beautiful collection of works depicting the landscapes around Pau in south-western France. Views take in the Gave de Pau river and the valley of the Gave d'Ossau, backdropped by the peaks of the Pyrenees mountains. There are also coastal views at Biarritz. Painted from life, some of the vistas are drawn from the vantage point of grand residences, such as Chateau d'Igon and Maison d'Agnos. The paintings—rendered in ethereal wash, with sometimes an added blurring of charcoal—capture something of the majesty and mystique of this mountainous region. For centuries a general lack of knowledge about the Pyrenees perpetuated misconceptions about the mountain range. It was only recently, in the 19th century, that the first topographical and geologic maps were made of the mountains, and it is only since the Second World War that the Pyrenees have been thoroughly explored and researched.
We acquired the paintings with the attribution to Paul-Adolphe Rajon (1843–1888), the source of which is unknown. Rajon is celebrated as a printmaker, who had a long career producing etchings after old masters and of notable figures of the day, including Charles Darwin and Alfred, Lord Tennyson in Britain. There appears to be no record of extant landscape works by Rajon, and he is overwhelmingly known as a printmaker, but there is report in The Portfolio magazine in 1888 that he 'was bent on becoming a painter, an intention he never abandoned… Rajon would ever and anon declare a resolution to abandon the art of which he was a master and take up the line he began to follow in the Rue Bonapart' [as a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris].
Born at Dijon in 1843, Rajon started his career working for the photographer Pierre Joseph Meurisse in Metz. He went on to study at the school of design in Metz (1859–60) and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Rajon became a friend of Philippe Burty, Félix Bracquemond, and Louis-Charles-Auguste Steinheil, and in 1873 he received a commission through Bracquemond to go to England. Thereafter he visited the country for six months a year, making portrait etchings, including of Darwin and Tennyson. Both in France and England he enjoyed financial and critical success and, through his acquaintance with the American print dealer Frederick Keppel in New York, his fame also spread to the USA. He was awarded medals at the Paris Salons of 1869, 1870, and 1873, and at the Exposition Universelle of 1878.
