Doorkijk vanuit een abdijgang met bloemen en pauw 1840

Jean Jacques Champin created this lithograph, "View from an Abbey Corridor with Flowers and Peacock," around 1840. It gives us a glimpse into the Romantic era's fascination with nature and the past, filtered through the lens of the French Salon system. Champin, a lithographer, captures a serene abbey garden, filled with blossoming flowers and a proud peacock. The ruined architecture suggests a connection to history, while the lush plants speak to the power of nature. This image was made for the Salon de 1840, an important annual exhibition where the French art establishment displayed what it considered the best art of the time. As the official art institution in France, the Salon’s tastes influenced artistic production. It was known to privilege certain genres and approaches while excluding others. Champin’s lithograph reflects the Salon’s conservative taste for idealized landscapes, though its location as a print made it more widely accessible than a painting. To understand this image fully, we can research the histories of both the Salon and of lithography. This tells us a great deal about French culture at the time.