Simon DENIS (Antwerp 1755 - Naples 1813) Washerwomen near a river Original canvas Signed lower right "S Denis". Monogrammed on reverse "SD". 61.5 x 74 cm Provenance : - Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, May 3, 1884, no. 96 (J. Denis) ; - Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, July 5-5, 1996, no. 359; - Anonymous sale, London (Phillips), April 15, 1997, no. 67. Bibliography: V. Branchini, Simon Denis (1755-1813) in Italia. Dipinti e disegni di paesaggio, PhD thesis, University of Bologna, 2003, no. 21, reproduced. Born in Antwerp, Simon Denis trained with landscape artist Henricus Josephus Antonissen (1737-1794) before arrived in Paris around 1775. In Paris, he worked under the direction of Jean Baptiste Pierre Le Brun (1748-1813), art dealer and husband of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842). Arriving in Rome in 1784 or 1786, he remained remained loyal to the Flemish community, and in 1789 was elected principal of the Fondation Saint-Julien-des-Flamands. He was also very close to Parisian circles: Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun recalls in her in her "Souvenirs" how Denis welcomed her in December 1789 before her apartment was ready and their expedition to Tivoli with the painter François-Guillaume Ménageot (1744-1816) at the same time. period. He left Rome around 1804 for Naples, where he died in 1813.