FÉLIX BOISSELIER* (1776-1811)

Details

FÉLIX BOISSELIER* (1776-1811)

A Shepherd weeping on a Tomb erected to a Gnat (Virgil, Culex)

signed and dated 'FBOISSELIER F.t. ROMA./1808.' [FB linked] and inscribed 'PÁRVE CVLEX PECVDVM CVSTOS/TIBI TALE MERENTI/FVNERIS OFFICIVM VITAE/PRO MVNERE REDDIT'--oil on canvas
75¼ x 57¾in. (178.4 x 146.7cm.)

Provenance

with Brame & Lorenceau, Paris
with Stuart Pivar, New York

Literature

M. Bonaire, Procès-verbaux de l'Académie des Beaux Art, 1795-1800, III, 1943, pp. 269-70
P. Grunchec in the catalogue of the exhibition, Les Concours des Prix de Rome, 1797-1863, National Academy of Design, New York, and elsewhere, 1984-1986, p. 38, illustrated

Exhibited

Rome, Académie de France, 1808

Lot Essay

The subject is from Virgil's poem Culex, in which a gnat stings a shepherd in an attempt to warn him of an approaching snake. The shepherd kills the gnat whose ghost returns to blame the shepherd for his ingratitude and tell him of the world beyond