Dutch landscape painter of the late 18th century, Barend Hendrik Thier has been almost completely forgotten. A recent discovery, the attribution of twelve still intact sketchbooks, has brought him back into the limelight, making him – by far – the 18th century Dutch artist for whom we have the greatest number of sketchbook. This fortunate discovery reveals a completely new side to his work, a more intimate and spontaneous approach to nature than his finished drawings for the market, and this sketchbook formerly in the Rothschild collection is perhaps the finest testimony to his art as a landscape painter, distinguished by his ability to capture and render the variations of light in the Dutch countryside. The 70 pages of the carnet in portrait format are also used horizontally, in double pages, to depict mainly the surroundings of Leiden, but there are also sketches of birds and natural landscapes.

Text in French.