The Heights of Sannois Seen from the Plain of Argenteuil
about 1798
Sannois is two miles to the north of Argenteuil, just outside Paris. Bidauld?s sketch was probably begun in the open air but finished in the studio. Such fresh, preparatory oil-sketches represented the unofficial side of the classical landscape tradition, of which Bidauld was a major exponent. Indeed, in the latter part of his life he was reviled as a reactionary figure by the younger generation of landscapists, such as Theodore Rousseau.
