Adam Horn af Ekebyholm - View of the Environs of Caudebec in Normandy, 1770

Adam Horn af Ekebyholm (1717–1778) Sweden

Vue des environs de Caudebec en Normandie
(View of the Environs of Caudebec in Normandy), 1770

signed and dated on the reverse Ad. Horn pinxit 1770
oil on canvas
unframed 45 × 56 cm (17.7 × 22 in)
framed 59 × 69 cm (23.2 × 27.2 in)
in its original period gilt frame
accompanied by an engraving after Jacob Philipp Hackert

Provenance:
Stockholms Auktionsverk, Stockholm, Fine Art & Antiques Autumn 2022, 7 December 2022, lot 630; A private collection Stockholm. 

Essay:

Painted in 1770, this view of the environs of Caudebec presents the banks of the Seine as a setting for everyday activity within a carefully ordered landscape. A castle rises above the rocky cliffs at the left, while a weathered tree anchors the right foreground. Between them, boats lead the eye towards distant hills and a luminous horizon. Four figures gather beside baskets at the water’s edge, their red, blue and white clothing bringing concentrated accents of colour to the earth and vegetation. Above, broad clouds pass across an expansive blue sky, giving the scene much of its spaciousness and atmospheric movement.

The composition follows Première vue des environs de Caudebec en Normandie, engraved by Yves-Marie Le Gouaz under the direction of Jacques Aliamet after Jacob Philipp Hackert. The Bibliothèque nationale de France catalogues the engraving with a publication date of 1769, suggesting that Horn’s painting followed its appearance within approximately a year. A closely corresponding painting by Hackert, signed and dated 1767 and sold at Lempertz in 2019, shows the arrangement in reverse. Horn follows the orientation of the engraving, with the tree at the right and the castle at the left. This reversal provides strong visual evidence for the print’s role as intermediary. The relatively taller proportions of his canvas and his choices of colour for the figures’ clothing give the painted version a distinct character.

The accompanying impression preserves the dedication to Count Creutz, Sweden’s representative at the French court, together with his coat of arms. This detail gives the French landscape a specific Swedish connection. Hackert himself had visited Stockholm in 1764 and worked for the royal court before moving to France. These associations place Horn’s choice of model within a wider exchange of landscape imagery between France and Sweden.

A count, military officer and councillor of state, Horn combined painting with a prominent role in Swedish public life. In May 1772, two years after completing this landscape, he placed the crown upon Gustav III’s head together with Archbishop Beronius, a ceremony subsequently represented in Carl Gustav Pilo’s monumental coronation painting at Nationalmuseum. Horn was elected an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm in 1776. His artistic activity thus formed part of a broader engagement with the cultural institutions and court society of his time.

Nationalmuseum preserves further evidence of his engagement with landscape, including Landskap med fiskare, a wash drawing signed in 1763. Especially relevant is a watercolour catalogued with Elias Martin as the inventor of the composition and Horn as its executor. It offers a documented parallel to his use of Hackert’s design here. Working from another artist’s composition formed part of his practice, allowing him to engage with professional models through his own handling of colour and paint.

Seen alongside the engraving, the present work offers a particularly clear example of how Horn translated a contemporary landscape design from the printed sheet into colour. The painting comes with its original gilt frame in the Gustavian style, with garlands and ribbon ornament that echo the composition’s balance and elegance.