Ravine at Sorrento

Plein-air oil sketches by Bertin are scarce. This example may have been painted on his first trip to southern Italy, in 1821. He was well along in his study of landscape painting when, in 1823, he began to frequent the atelier of Jean Victor Bertin (no relation). There he first encountered Camille Corot and Théodore Caruelle d'Aligny, with whom he would be associated by Salon critics throughout his career.