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Lot Essay
Wilfred de Glehn's L'Age d'Or: a decoration, painted on a truly monumental scale, is the first of two ambitious pictures that he exhibited at the Royal Academy during the 1930s which sought to uphold the pre-eminence of classical subject matter while maintaining the plein-air ideal. The second picture, painted on a smaller scale, was The Poet, accompanied by some of the Muses. (Sold Christie's London, 16th December 2009, lot 84).
The present picture is set in the Var Valley in the south of France, looking towards the hill town of Carros with its twelfth-century château. Inspiration for the subject matter can be seen in the work of Ingres, who produced a composition of the same name and a version of which, in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard, de Glehn may have seen while staying with John Singer Sargent in Boston. Influence can also be seen from the work of Puvis de Chavannes whose work, also via Sargent, de Glehn came into contact with in the first years of the century.
The present picture is set in the Var Valley in the south of France, looking towards the hill town of Carros with its twelfth-century château. Inspiration for the subject matter can be seen in the work of Ingres, who produced a composition of the same name and a version of which, in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard, de Glehn may have seen while staying with John Singer Sargent in Boston. Influence can also be seen from the work of Puvis de Chavannes whose work, also via Sargent, de Glehn came into contact with in the first years of the century.