Louis Philippe Crepin (Paris 1772-Paris 1851) River landscapes animated by fishermen pair of oils on oval canvas 19x25 cm Louis Philippe Crepin was the official painter of the French Ministry of the Navy and a painter loved by Napoleon Bonaparte, who commissioned him to paint an important painting for the Tuilleries Palace. Following in the footsteps of the master Joseph Vernet he began to specialize in the creation of canvases depicting French ports. Our two canvases, however, belong to a second productive trend, perhaps more interesting and intimate, which Crepin cultivated throughout his life: Arcadian-Roman landscape painting, learned from his other great spiritual master, Hubert Robert. The two ovals represent a placid countryside, where a river flows animated by shepherds intent on observing it. Acting as an architectural backdrop there are imposing trees that stand out against clear skies and seem to loom over the figures, almost presaging a romantic taste for naturalistic data. The references, in addition to the aforementioned Hubert Robert, can only be found in the great seventeenth-century tradition of Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin and Gaspar Dughet, without forgetting the plein air influence of the contemporary Pierre Henri de Valenciennes.