Théodore Chassériau (Sainte-Barbe de Samana 1819-1856 Paris)
Théodore Chassériau (Sainte-Barbe de Samana 1819-1856 Paris)

Susanna at the Bath

細節
Théodore Chassériau (Sainte-Barbe de Samana 1819-1856 Paris)
Susanna at the Bath
drawn on the verso of a print of the same ; signed 'T Chassériau pint' (verso) and with inscription 'Salon de 1839' (verso)
pencil
7½ x 5¾ in. (190 x 145 mm.)
來源
Anon. sale; Paris, 23 March 1949, lot 48.
出版
M. Sandoz, Théodore Chassériau: catalogue raisonné des peintures et estampes, Paris, 1974, under no. 267.
M. Sandoz, 'Portraits et visages dessinés par Théodore Chassériau', Cahiers Théodore Chassériau, 1986, II, pp. 140-1, no. 139, illustrated. L.-A. Prat, Dessins de Théodore Chassériau, Paris, 1988, I, under no. 13.
L.-A. Prat, Théodore Chassériau, dessins conservés en dehors du Louvre, Paris, 1988, no. 40.
展覽
Baltimore Museum of Art, Théodore Chassériau : Illustrations for Othello, 1980, under no. 1, pp. 144-5, note 3
刻印
In lithograph and in reverse by the artist, on the verso of the present drawing.

拍品專文

Related to the picture of the same subject presented to the Salon of 1839 and now in the Louvre (V. Pomarède, Chassériau, un autre romantisme, exhib. cat., Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 2002, no. 15). The general arrangement of the drawing is very close to that of the picture, with the two elders hiding in the background, albeit the position of Susanna is different. In the Louvre's picture she is getting undressed while in the present drawing she is rearranging her hair while holding her clothes.
Amongst a number of related drawings, the one the closest in composition to the present one is at the Louvre (L.-A. Prat, op. cit., 1988, no. 13). The later drawing, of a much larger size than the former, shows a slightly different position of the right hand. Three further related drawings are also in the Louvre (L.-A. Prat, op. cit., 1988, nos. 11-2, 14).
Chassériau used the present drawing to produce a lithograph of the composition, printed on the verso of the sheet. Only one other impression of this lithograph, retouched by the artist, is known (at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, M. Sandoz, op. cit., 1974, no. 267, fig. CCXXII).
The Salon of 1839 was Chassériau's first public exhibition, and the picture, although badly hung, was very successful. It was described by the critic Théophile Thoré as 'Sa suzanne au bain est d'une tournure délicieuse; il y a je ne sais quelle noblesse et quelle volupté dans les ondoiements de sa taille. [] Le fond du paysage, où l'on entrevoit les deux têtes curieuses des vieillards, est superbe et de haut style. [] La couleur générale est donc limpide, mais faible comme la lueur pâle de la lune' (T. Thoré, 'Salon de 1839', Le Constitutionnel, Paris, 1839, quoted in V. Pomarède, op. cit., p. 88). A few weeks later the picture was hung in a more prominent place. The picture was then sent to America to be sold, returned to Europe, was exhibited again at the Exposition Universelle of 1855, went to Russia, was sold at Drouot before being given to the Louvre by Alice Ozy in 1884.