Jean Alaux, who was known as “le Romain” to distinguish him from his artist brothers: Jean-Pierre and Jean-Paul, first studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux. He then went off to Paris, where he received further training in the studio of Vincent. In 1815 he was awarded the Prix de Rome, and after staying at the Villa Medici as a pensionary he returned to Paris, where he made his Salon debut in 1824. Between approximately 1818 and 1832 he produced a series of Italian folk scenes in the style of Léopold Robert. Alaux and the architect Lesueur joined forces to produce a series of 15 litographs of the Grandes vues de Rome, which was published in Paris between 1826 and 1828. During the July Monarchy he became one of Louis-Philippe’s favorite history painters, and received major commissions from the Gallerie Historique at Versailles. From 1847 to 1852 he returned to the Villa Medici in Rome as director of the Académie de France. He was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 1848, and was elected a member of the Institut in 1851.
This drawing, which is dated ten years after Alaux returned from Rome, may well have been based on his own observations of a similar event. The auction catalogue from 1840 locates the scene in Naples, which Alaux seems to have visited in 1818 in search of fresh inspiration to dispel the disappointment he was feeling in Rome. He may also have drawn on the standard iconographic models of Italian costumes and popular customs which were circulating at the time. Pinelli’s series of prints of genre included etchings of Neapolitan dances. Another possible source is Thomas (a fellow pensionary in Rome). Thomas also gave a detailed description of the dance, stating that is was generally performed by a couple to the music of a guitar, castanets and a tambourine.
The Fodor drawing must have been one of Alaux’s last works in the picturesque genre. As far as we know there is no connection between the watercolors and the few genre pictures he is reported to have made. Although he was well-known during his lifetime (the Dutch journal, Kunstkronijk, described him as an exemplary history painter), this drawing was never properly identified in the Netherlands, despite the fact that it bears a perfectly legible signature. The two auction catalogues of 1840 and 1845 give the artist’s name as “A. Caux,” an error which was perpetuated in the original catalogue of the Fodor Museum. The 1845 identification of the dancers as Tyrolean is equally mystifying, given that the 1840 catalogue had described them as “merry Neapolitan fisherfolk.” The drawing was given a more suitable title after Fodor had added it to his collection in 1845. ( Wiepke Loos)
