Bonington : Le Virtuose Romantique

A major figure in the Romantic movement, Richard Parkes Bonington (1902-1928) left a body of work of infinite richness: over 400 paintings and watercolours, and as many drawings. His early death shocked not only the circle of British artists, but also a group of young French painters - including Eugène Delacroix, with whom he was closely associated - critics and art lovers.

They had all supported the young man's meteoric rise, and Bonington's works, whether depicting the French coast, Venice or the English countryside, made him one of the most extraordinary landscape painters. According to Sainte-Beuve, Bonington's luminous vision defined the parameters of Romanticism, just as much as Géricault's extraordinary realism and Delacroix's fiery imagination.

This reference monograph, the first in France on the English painter, looks in detail at the aspects and singularity of his work, focusing on his relationship with Delacroix through numerous comparisons of paintings, watercolours, drawings and engravings by the two artists. The book addresses questions of Bonington's relationship with Anglo-French literature and the influence that his Italian paintings may have had, and includes reproductions of previously unpublished works by Bonington that have appeared on the market since the publication of the two volumes of the catalogue raisonné in 2008-2011.