View of Mont Blanc c. 1865

ViView of Mont Blanc, Seen from La Faucille is one of Théodore Rousseau's most important late works, on which he worked assiduously for four years, and which he finally exhibited publicly at the Paris Salon of 1867. However, until very recently its significance and its location at the MIA were completely overlooked. The picture demonstrates the importance that Rousseau ascribed to panoramic mountain views. The subject's iconographic interest resided also in the fact that ownership of the Savoy region reverted to France, after fifty years, only in 1861 (two years before Rousseau's second Alpine visit) when a treaty signed by France and Italy established the boundary between those countries as passing directly through the summit of Mont Blanc. In addition to this topical iconographic interest, the painting's remarkable light effects and its complex proto-pointillist facture, which confused most critics at the time, evidence an experimental technique that was both unorthodox and prescient. Conservation of this picture was made possible by a generous contribution from Douglas and Mary Olson and Al and Dena Naylor through the Art Champions program. This French Neoclassical revival salon frame—contemporary with the painting —is Gift of the Douglas and Mary Olson Frame Acquisition Fund.