This month we take a closer look at a small early 20th century oil painting by the German-born artist Adolf Brougier (1870-1926). It depicts a mountain landscape on a sunny day.
This month we take a closer look at an oil painting of a mountain landscape on a sunny day, by Adolf Brougier (1870 – 1926).
About the artist
Adolf Wilhelm Brougier was born in October 1870 in Stuttgart, Germany. His father was an influential and successful businessman, Adolf Joseph Brougier, who owned a large chain of grocery stores in Southern Germany.
Brougier studied art in Munich, Paris and Florence before returning to Germany where he settled in Munich, joining the Munich Artists' Collective and the Luitpold Group, a community of visual artists. Brougier moved to England around the turn of the century and there in 1898 he married an English woman, Ada Willis.
He displayed genuine artistic ability and a strong work ethic. His artworks covered a range of subjects; perhaps best-known for rural landscapes, he also painted portraits and urban scenes.
Artworks by Brougier were accepted into the Royal Academy Summer exhibitions between 1906 and 1915. He was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists and his work achieved favourable mentions in newspaper articles about the Society’s exhibitions.
An article in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News of Saturday 5 March 1904, stated:
“Two artists are conspicuous above the rest whose works are now on show at the Continental Gallery in Grafton- street. One, M. Edouard Zier……. The other artist, M. Adolph Brougier, is a pupil of Bouguereau, and shows all the versatility of his master. His portraits, particularly of women, are clever, and his landscapes are full of observation at first-hand, no slight merit in a man who is so productive.”
In 1906 his father purchased a house in Menton, on the Cote D’Azur which Brougier clearly visited, as several of his paintings in the Royal Academy Summer exhibitions depicted landscapes of that area of France.
It seems that he maintained links with Germany, continuing to spend time there. His daughter Hildegard was born in Munich in 1901. The death of his wife Ada is recorded at Lindau, on Lake Constance, in 1910.
Some time after her death he moved to America and he made Santa Barbara in California his home for the last years of his life, with their daughter and a new wife, Mary. He maintained his artistic career in America, with exhibitions in Los Angeles.
Adolf Brougier died in March 1926. In his will he specified that he wished to be buried alongside his first wife, in Lindau, Germany.
About the Painting
Brougier studied art for three years in Munich and later spent a year in Paris, where he studied under Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (a painter and etcher specialising in oriental subjects) and William-Adolphe Bouguereau (an academic painter who exhibited in the Paris Salon). Both of these respected artists painted in the traditional European style and were not aligned with the emerging impressionist movement.
However, Brougier developed a slightly impressionistic, lighter style for the new century, and this painting, with its broad brush strokes, exemplifies this well. The use of subtle colours deftly conjures up the warm sun on distant mountains, with the brighter green meadow in the foreground, and shadows making a strong contrast.
This painting is executed in oil paint on board and is quite small (height 40 cm, width 51 cm framed), making it ideal for hanging in a domestic setting.
The scene is unknown but it possibly depicts the Santa Ynez mountains in Santa Barbara where the artist lived around 100 years ago. The image below shows an image of these mountains as they are today.
Acknowledgements:
Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, Saturday 5 March 1904
British Newspaper Archive: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
AskArt website: https://www.askart.com/
University of Exeter
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