Literature:
Claude Marumo, Thomas Maier and Bernd Mullerschön, Paul-Désiré Trouillebert, catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Stuttgart, 2004, no. 465, p. 373, illustrated.

Born in Paris in 1829, Trouillebert was a portrait, genre, and landscape painter of the pre-impressionistic School of Barbizon. A student of Ernest Hébert (1817-1908) and Charles François Jalabert (1819-1901), he debuted at the Salon of 1865 and exhibited widely thereafter. While focusing primarily on genre scenes and portraiture in his early career, Trouillebert became aware of the work of Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875), and took an exceptional interest in it. Immerging himself in landscape painting and working en plein air, Trouillebert thus associated himself with the traditions of the Barbizon School. He also experimented with new methods of representation, producing loosely painted landscapes and works that focused on the effects of weather, atmosphere, and time of day, prefiguring the Impressionist movement of the following decades.

Trouillebert's work received much public attention in 1883, as the result of a court case involving one of his paintings. The painting La Fontaine des Gabourets had been sold by one of Paris' most prominent dealers, George Petit, to the son of writer Alexandre Dumas. Trouillebert's signature had been removed from the painting and had been replaced by a Corot signature. The fake was discovered by Robaut and Bernheim-Jeune and the painting was returned to the original seller, Tedesco. Trouillebert, who had nothing to do with that fraud, brought legal action against the guilty parties to regain his reputation and clear his name. The trial was highly publicized in all of the papers and Trouillebert won his case. George Petit was also cleared, as he had purchased the painting from Tedesco in good faith. Both artists benefited greatly from all of the attention brought by the case.

A contemporary critic wrote of Trouillebert's work: "The greatest merit of Trouillebert is to be a complete painter; he never confined himself to a genre: he was also just as skillful at bringing to life the flesh of a woman as painting bright and hazy landscapes of the banks of the Loire or the Oise with the soft aspects of the trees, of spring mornings of portraits or of still lifes of a true realism. His oeuvre, which was considerable, conserves a tonality that is its own, an incontestable originality and a strong personality which differentiates it from Corot… and which assures him one of the greatest places…among the contemporary landscape painters." Trouillebert's poetic landscapes and riverscapes have an unmistakable style revealing his interest in light and weather, and capturing with great subtlety and delicacy the mood and character of his subjects. Relaxed, vibrating brushstrokes, feathery trees, and gently dotted foliage are the hallmarks of his painting. Widely appreciated and highly regarded, Trouillebert's paintings are found in museums and private collections the world over. Several of his paintings were in the private collection of the great Edgar Degas. Trouillebert's work perfectly exemplifies the art that forms the bridge from Corot to the Impressionists.

Museums:
Musée de Puy, Vichy, France
Musée de Mulhouse, Mulhouse, France
Musée de Nice, Nice, France
Musée de Reims, Reims, France
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

References:
E. Bénézit Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Editions Gründ
Dictionnaire biographique des artistes contemporains: 1910-1930, Paris, Librarie Gund, Edward-Joseph
Thieme-Becker Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, E.A. Seemann Verlag Leipzig