Charles-Louis Clérisseau was a French artist and architect, and a key figure in the development of the Neo-classical style during the 18th century.
He trained as an architect in Paris before studying at the French Academy in Rome. It was in Rome, surrounded by crumbling ruins and under the tutelage of Giovanni Paolo Panini, that he developed a passion for the antique. This passion would ultimately shape both his architectural and artistic practices.
Clérisseau’s influence was extensive. He acted as mentor and drawing instructor for young artists and architects, filtering his taste for the antique down to the next generation. He also worked with key figures internationally, creating a series of never-realised over the-top designs for the Russian Empress Catherine II and working with Thomas Jefferson to produce designs for the Virginia State Capitol. Most famously, Clérisseau was a key influence on the architect Robert Adam. Adam was travelling, looking for a style that would allow him to distinguish himself from other young British architects.
Clérisseau was the key, with Adam proclaiming, he ‘drew delightfully in the free manner I wanted’ and had ‘the utmost knowledge of Architecture of Perspective, & of Designing and Colouring I ever saw'. They worked together on a volume, Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalato (1764)
and though uncredited many of the engravings are now thought to be by Clérisseau.
Clérisseau also painted atmospheric watercolour and gouache paintings of his favoured antique ruins. These lovely paintings found commercial success; they were regularly purchased as cultural souvenirs by young English gentlemen on their Grand Tour. The offered pair of signed and dated gouaches are typical examples of these popular paintings. These charming studies feature fantasy architectural structures, bathed in light and shadow, overgrown with foliage and populated with figures and animals; all techniques that serve to highlight the majesty and magnitude of the crumbling structures.