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Lot Essay
This delightful painting shows a flock of cupids buzzing forth from their hives to assail a maiden gathering flowers in a lush garden replete with classical accents, including a circular temple. Relentless in their attack, the winged culprits tug at her tunic and sashes as they prick her with arrows. Fending them off proves impossible for the young woman, whose statuesque body echoes the presiding marble figure of Flora. The basket of colorful blooms the maiden had gathered has fallen to the ground, thus symbolizing her surrender to the amorini’s onslaught.
The Hives of Cupids was originally part of a group of four paintings representing scenes of amorini mischievously interacting with young women in Grecian attire. The ensemble is traditionally thought to have been commissioned from Schall by the Swiss banker Jean Frédéric Perregaux (1744-1808) to decorate his Parisian townhouse (A. Girodie, op. cit., pp. 24-25). The Russian industrialist and distinguished patron of the arts, Count Anatole Nikolaievich Demidoff, was the first documented owner of Schall’s set, which is listed in a sale of the Count’s collection that was held in Paris on February 26, 1870. The other canvases represent: Cupids Resting (private collection), The Cupids’ Entrapment (with Didier Aaron, New York, 1986) and The Cupids Attack (Untraced). The Hives of Cupids is the only dated painting in the series: “l’an 10,” the tenth year in the Revolutionary calendar (September 1801-August 1802), is inscribed on the marble plinth in the right foreground along with the artist’s name.
As evidenced by the subtly erotic yet playful nature of the present composition, Schall is never lewd in his treatment of amorous subject matter. The artist continued to paint sexually charged scenes and managed to find clients for them throughout the Revolution, the ideals of which he championed. Even the short-lived period of prudishness fostered by Robespierre and his acolytes and the turmoil of the Terror did not spell financial disaster for Schall. In fact, he and his family were given lodgings in the Louvre; nevertheless, the pragmatic artist produced several antimonarchist compositions during this period.
The Hives of Cupids was originally part of a group of four paintings representing scenes of amorini mischievously interacting with young women in Grecian attire. The ensemble is traditionally thought to have been commissioned from Schall by the Swiss banker Jean Frédéric Perregaux (1744-1808) to decorate his Parisian townhouse (A. Girodie, op. cit., pp. 24-25). The Russian industrialist and distinguished patron of the arts, Count Anatole Nikolaievich Demidoff, was the first documented owner of Schall’s set, which is listed in a sale of the Count’s collection that was held in Paris on February 26, 1870. The other canvases represent: Cupids Resting (private collection), The Cupids’ Entrapment (with Didier Aaron, New York, 1986) and The Cupids Attack (Untraced). The Hives of Cupids is the only dated painting in the series: “l’an 10,” the tenth year in the Revolutionary calendar (September 1801-August 1802), is inscribed on the marble plinth in the right foreground along with the artist’s name.
As evidenced by the subtly erotic yet playful nature of the present composition, Schall is never lewd in his treatment of amorous subject matter. The artist continued to paint sexually charged scenes and managed to find clients for them throughout the Revolution, the ideals of which he championed. Even the short-lived period of prudishness fostered by Robespierre and his acolytes and the turmoil of the Terror did not spell financial disaster for Schall. In fact, he and his family were given lodgings in the Louvre; nevertheless, the pragmatic artist produced several antimonarchist compositions during this period.