Leberecht Lortet

Mountain landscape representing a surging torrent with figures in the foreground and the Alps in the background. Oil on canvas, recently relined and restored.

Leberecht Lortet (or Lortel) was a French landscape painter, born to French parents in Heidelberg (Baden-Württemberg, Germany) on April 30, 1828. He lived most of his life in Lyon (from 1848 to 1861) and its surroundings, dying on November 6, 1901 in Oullins, Rhône, France.

A pupil of Alexandre Calame in Geneva, Switzerland, Lortet began exhibiting at the Salon in Lyon in 1858 and then took part in the Paris Salon from 1859 to 1870. Like Gabriel Loppé, he specialized in mountain landscapes and found a clientele among the English, who were then discovering the new sport of mountaineering. This prolific artist dedicated his life to painting mountains: snowy peaks, green meadows surrounded by fir trees, and shady lakes. His nickname was “the painter of the Alps”. His paintings are presently on display in museums in Lyon, Strasbourg, Montpellier, Geneva and Bern, as well as in numerous private collections.

Sources: Benezit, Dictionary of Artists; Archives de France; Gérald Schurr & Pierre Cabanne, Dictionnaire des Petits Maîtres de la peinture 1820-1920.

Artist: Leberecht Lortet (1828-1901).
Signed in lower left corner.
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Condition: Very good condition, relined and restored.
Dimensions: 41 x 65 cm. / 16 x 25 ½ in.
Frame: 60 x 85 cm. / 23 ¾ x 30 ½ in. Sculpted wood, excellent condition.
Origin: France.