MELENIE

Details

EMANUEL LEUTZE (1816-1868)
MELENIE
signed and dated EG Leutze / Nov 1839 (lower right), titled, signed and dated again "Melenie" / E.G. Leutze / Painted / 1839 (on reverse)
oil on canvas
39 7⁄8 x 25 ¼ in.
Painted in November 1839

Provenance

Chas. Toppan, Philadelphia, circa 1843
The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Lorenz Noll Art Gallery, San Francisco, California
Graville Elkan Libby
Gift of Judith Libby to the Wethersfield Historical Society, Wethersfield, Connecticut, 2016

Literature

Charles G. Leland, "E.G. Leutze", Sartain's Union Magazine (November 1851), pp. 420-21.
Anna W. Rutledge, Cumulative Record of Exhibition Catalogues - The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 1807-1870; The Society of Artists 1800-1814; The Artists' Fund Society 1835-1845 (Philadelphia, 1955), 1843, no. 17.
Barbara S. Groseclose, Emanuel Leutze, 1816-1868: Freedom is the only King (Washington, D.C., 1975), p. 72, no. 17.

Exhibited

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1843.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

From the poem "To Melenie" (unknown author): Sweet Melenie! I know not why I gaze so on thy dark glad eye! I cannot turn my eyes away Thy charms invite them so to stay!

The image also inspired an engraving by John Sartain (1808-1897), titled Melanie, also known as Lillian Grey (see Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, acc. no. 1948.23.525)

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