.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present work is not the only version of this subject that the artist created in oil during his lifetime, but it is the only extant version still located. The primary version, Femmes près de l'eau, was submitted to the Paris Salon in 1842 and acquired by the Belgian Royal Collection before it was destroyed in the fire at Palace Laeken in 1890. Before it was consumed by fire, the larger canvas was also referred to as Les baigneuses and Les filles de la Source, all evocations of the water source associated with the Muses in classic mythology.
While working on this classically inspired scene, Lehmann was traveling in Italy, enjoying the company of influential literary, musical, and artistic proponents including author Comtesse Marie Cathérine Sophie d'Agoult, famed pianist Franz Liszt, and fellow painter and student Théodore Chassériau. In 1840, Lehmann probably dedicated a preparatory study of Femmes près de l'eau to Chassériau with whom he had become fast friends (A. E. Miller, 'A Study by Henri Lehmann for his Femmes près de l'eau', Master Drawings, vol. 47, no. 4, New York, 2009, p. 480). However, the friendship evaporated just as quickly over competition between the painters for a special portrait commission. That version was inscribed with the name ‘Chass…?’ obscured and was likely never given to Chassériau as a result of the falling out (M.-M. Aubrun, Henri Lehman (1814-1882): catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre, Paris, 1984, p. 98, no. 211).
Like his teacher Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Lehmann executed numerous studies and drawings to develop and finesse a composition. One of the studies executed in 1840, now resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Miller, pp. 478-483). Variation and development in the oil and pencil studies up to 1842 indicate careful attention to small gestures of the figures in keeping with classical training. Lehmann was still an integral part of Ingres’s studio during these years.
In addition to Ingres, the inspiring company Lehmann enjoyed leading up to the completion of Femmes près de l'eau must have influenced the present work. The classical subject of La Source indicates the artist’s burgeoning interest in classical idealism and principled creativity that would have been the subject of hours of conversation in the social circles Lehmann experienced in Prussia, Italy, and France. At its unveiling in the 1842 Salon, the grandiose yet intimate scene was accompanied by an excerpt from Les Feuilles d’Automne by Victor Hugo:
Là, des saules pensifs qui pleurent sur la rive,
Et, comme une baigneuse indolente et naïve,
Laissent tremper dans l’eau le bout de leurs cheveux
There, pensive willows that weep on the shore,
And, like an indolent and naïve bather,
Allow the end of their tresses to soak in the water
Other versions of the scene, other than the aforementioned study associated with Chassériau, are mentioned in Lehmann’s correspondence with friends like Marie d’Agoult. A smaller and highly finished version was included in the exhibition of Lehmann’s work at the at the École nationale des beaux-arts in January 1883 under the title Baigneuses (no. 38). However, sparse cataloguing details have prevented identification of the version in that exhibition as either the present work or one of the other known versions, none of which have known whereabouts (Aubrun, p. 98).
Classical inspiration remained a prominent theme for Lehmann. His Désolation des Océanides au pied du roc où Prométhée est enchaîné (Musée muséum départemental, Hautes-Alpes) completed 8 years later displays similar inclusion of classically inspired subjects and visual devices. But whereas the light in the present work creates a serene and inviting atmosphere, in the later picture Lehmann used the raked beams of light to heighten and underscore the emotively posed bodies and emotional frenzy. Lehmann also treated ‘La Source’ and ‘L’Eau’ as a subject decades later, both in the decoration for his home in Paris and the possibly related related studies of L’Eau La Source, now in the Musée Ingres Bourdelle. These later treatments personify La Source as a single figure in contrast to the closely intermingling group in the present composition. The earlier and more sensual grouping is perhaps a reflection of the sense of creative community enjoyed by the artist in the beginning of his career.
While working on this classically inspired scene, Lehmann was traveling in Italy, enjoying the company of influential literary, musical, and artistic proponents including author Comtesse Marie Cathérine Sophie d'Agoult, famed pianist Franz Liszt, and fellow painter and student Théodore Chassériau. In 1840, Lehmann probably dedicated a preparatory study of Femmes près de l'eau to Chassériau with whom he had become fast friends (A. E. Miller, 'A Study by Henri Lehmann for his Femmes près de l'eau', Master Drawings, vol. 47, no. 4, New York, 2009, p. 480). However, the friendship evaporated just as quickly over competition between the painters for a special portrait commission. That version was inscribed with the name ‘Chass…?’ obscured and was likely never given to Chassériau as a result of the falling out (M.-M. Aubrun, Henri Lehman (1814-1882): catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre, Paris, 1984, p. 98, no. 211).
Like his teacher Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Lehmann executed numerous studies and drawings to develop and finesse a composition. One of the studies executed in 1840, now resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Miller, pp. 478-483). Variation and development in the oil and pencil studies up to 1842 indicate careful attention to small gestures of the figures in keeping with classical training. Lehmann was still an integral part of Ingres’s studio during these years.
In addition to Ingres, the inspiring company Lehmann enjoyed leading up to the completion of Femmes près de l'eau must have influenced the present work. The classical subject of La Source indicates the artist’s burgeoning interest in classical idealism and principled creativity that would have been the subject of hours of conversation in the social circles Lehmann experienced in Prussia, Italy, and France. At its unveiling in the 1842 Salon, the grandiose yet intimate scene was accompanied by an excerpt from Les Feuilles d’Automne by Victor Hugo:
Là, des saules pensifs qui pleurent sur la rive,
Et, comme une baigneuse indolente et naïve,
Laissent tremper dans l’eau le bout de leurs cheveux
There, pensive willows that weep on the shore,
And, like an indolent and naïve bather,
Allow the end of their tresses to soak in the water
Other versions of the scene, other than the aforementioned study associated with Chassériau, are mentioned in Lehmann’s correspondence with friends like Marie d’Agoult. A smaller and highly finished version was included in the exhibition of Lehmann’s work at the at the École nationale des beaux-arts in January 1883 under the title Baigneuses (no. 38). However, sparse cataloguing details have prevented identification of the version in that exhibition as either the present work or one of the other known versions, none of which have known whereabouts (Aubrun, p. 98).
Classical inspiration remained a prominent theme for Lehmann. His Désolation des Océanides au pied du roc où Prométhée est enchaîné (Musée muséum départemental, Hautes-Alpes) completed 8 years later displays similar inclusion of classically inspired subjects and visual devices. But whereas the light in the present work creates a serene and inviting atmosphere, in the later picture Lehmann used the raked beams of light to heighten and underscore the emotively posed bodies and emotional frenzy. Lehmann also treated ‘La Source’ and ‘L’Eau’ as a subject decades later, both in the decoration for his home in Paris and the possibly related related studies of L’Eau La Source, now in the Musée Ingres Bourdelle. These later treatments personify La Source as a single figure in contrast to the closely intermingling group in the present composition. The earlier and more sensual grouping is perhaps a reflection of the sense of creative community enjoyed by the artist in the beginning of his career.