The New York Times / 14th May 1999
This intermingling of paintings from Simon Dickinson and sculptures from the London dealer Daniel Katz packs quite a bit of history and delight into limited space. Not surprisingly, it is the oil sketches of the little-known French painter Auguste Jean-Baptiste Vinchon (1789-1855) – the 1814 Prix de Rome winner who returned to Paris to live out his life as a history painter – that delight most immediately.
Alive with the tension between accurately observed detail and confidently cursory paint handling, these quietly luminous works anticipate the later freedoms of Delacroix and the Barbizon School. Their tiny images include cool, cavernous interiors, the rooftops and towers of Rome swathed in mist, the Temple of Vesta and the falls at Tivoli, and sweeping mountain landscapes. A sprinkling of works by Jean-Joseph Xavier Bidauld, Corot and Antoine-Félix Boisselier create interesting opportunities for comparison.