Souvenir of Lake Nemi

Twenty kilometers southeast of Rome, the Albano and Nemi lakes in the heart of the Alban Hills have inspired countless artists with their splendid vistas and exceptional quality of light. Celebrated by the ancient Latin poet Virgil as "Diana's mirror", Lake Nemi and its shallow waters reflecting the sky and surrounding greenery have attracted generations of painters such as Claude Lorrain, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun and Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes. During their stay at the Villa Medici, Léon Cogniet and his friend Achille-Etna Michallon also went there several times to paint this landscape en plein air, but Cogniet, in particular, left behind radically modern views. In an unconventional approach, rather than recomposing the landscape, Cogniet favors the framing of the eye discovering the lake from the shore, behind the branches of the trees. The vegetation delimits a very tight frame, in which the painter contrasts the dark green foliage with the lake, sometimes pale, drowning the Monts Albains in a light mist, sometimes bright, illuminated by a skilful play of light and shadow. Painting nature as it appears is one of the challenges of plein-air painting, which Cogniet applied to the letter, delivering papers that even today stand out for their proximity to the snapshot that would be invented at the other end of the century.