Lot 71
  • 71

Eugène Delacroix

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Description

  • Eugène Delacroix
  • Charles VI and Odette de Champdivers
  • oil on canvas

  • 14 by 10 3/4 in.
  • 35.5 by 27.3 cm

Provenance

Jules-Alexandre Duval-le-Camus (1814-1878), Paris (and sold: Maitre Petit, Paris, April 17-18, 1827, lot 38)
Frédéric Leblond, Paris, by 1832
Dumas-Descombes, by 1885
M. Bouriel (by descent from the above his father-in-law)
Comtesse Théobald de Vigneral, Paris, by 1964
Private Collection, Paris, by 1991
Stair Sainty Matthiesen Gallery, New York and London
Richard L. Feigen, New York
Private Collection, New York
Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owners

Exhibited

Paris, Musée Colbert, Explication des ouvrages de peinture (...)exposés à la galerie du Musée Colbert, le 6 mai 1832, par MM. les artistes, au profit des indigents (...) de Paris, atteints de la maladie épidémique, May 6, 1832, no. 144 (loaned by Frédéric Leblond)
Paris, École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Exposition Eugène Delacroix au profit de la souscription destinée à élèver à Paris un monument à sa memoire, March 6-April 15, 1885, no. 73
Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy; London Royal Academy of Arts, Delacroix. An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Lithographs sponsored by the Edinburgh Festival Society and arranged by the Arts Council of Great Britain in Association with the Royal Scottish Academy, August 15-September 13 and October 1-November 8, 1964, no. 11
Bourg-en-Bresse, Musée de l'Ain, Le Style troubadour, June 26-October 4, 1971, no. 15
New Orleans Musuem of Art;' New York, Stair Sainty Matthiesen Galleries; Cincinnati, Taft Museum of Art, Romance and Chilvary: History and Literature Reflected in Early 19th Century French Paintings, June-August 1996, October-November 1996, December 1996-February 1997
New York. Seventh Regiment Armory, International Fine Art Fair, May 7-May 12, 1999
London, Tate Gallery, Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics, February 5-May 11, 2003, no. 62
Minneapolis Institute of Arts; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Crossing the Channel: British and French Painting in the Age of Romanticism, June 8-September 7, 2003 and October 7, 2003-January 4, 2004, no. 62

Literature

Théophile Silvestre, Histoire des Artistes Vivants Français et Étrangers. Études d'après nature, Paris, 1855, p. 80
Adolphe Moreau, Delacroix et son oeuvre, Paris, 1873, p. 116. no. 17
Alfred Robaut, L'oeuvre complet d'Eugène Delacroix, Paris, 1885, no. 137
Etienne  Moreau-Nelaton, Delacroix raconté par lui-meme, Paris, 1916, vol. I, p. 141
"Un Delacroix reapparait grâce a l'exposition du Louvre," Connaissance des Arts, July 1963, no. 137, p. 21, illustrated
Maurice Serullaz, "A Comment on the Delacroix Exhibition organized in England," Burlington Magazine, 1965, vol. 107, p. 366
Lee Johnson, "Some Historical sketches by Delacroix", Burlington Magazine, vol. 115, 1973, p. 672, no. 1
Lee Johnson, The Paintings of Eugène Delacroix, Oxford, vol. 1, p. 96, no. 100; vol. 2, p. 96, illustrated, detail illustrated p. 85
Nadia Tscherny, Marie Chaudonneret, Francois Popil, Beth Wright, et. al, Romance and Chilvary: History and Literature Reflected in Early 19th Century French Paintings, exh, cat., London, 1996, no. 12, fig. 70, 145
Barthelemy Jobert, Delacroix, Princeton, 1998, p. 100, pl. 60, illustrated
Patrick Noon, Crossing the Channel: British and French Paintings in the Age of Romanticism, exh. cat., London, 2003, no. 62, p. 34, illustrated

Condition

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in beautiful condition. The canvas is unlined, has never been removed from its original stretcher and while the paint layer is very slightly cracked, it is certainly not unsightly or unstable. The paint layer has been cleaned and varnished. It appears to have been retouched in the upper left corner, in a couple of spots in the face of one of the figures in the upper left, in the sleeve of the central male figure and perhaps in the fabric in the lower right. Overall the condition is beautiful and the painting should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Catalogue Note

In April 1824, the twenty-five year old Delacroix embarked on a series of small-scale historical paintings, which, as he noted in his journal, were "little pictures, but all labors of love" (Walter Pach, trans., The Journal of Eugène Delacroix, New York, 1980, p. 72).  Charles VI and Odette de Champdivers was one of the jewel-like results of the series, painted either in late 1824 or in 1825.  Depicting a moment from the life of Charles VI (1368-1422), the tormented King of France in the era of the Hundred Years' War, the scene is charged with tension and sensuality.  Distraught by his military failures against the English and the paranoid hallucinations that have plagued him most of his life, Charles attempts to kill himself with his sword.  To prevent the suicide, his mistress Odette comforts the troubled king while one of his attendants wrests the weapon from his grasp.

Considered the foremost master of French Romantic painting, Delacroix painted this work in keeping with the themes for which the movement is most famous: drama, internal struggle, violence, and intense passion.  His pioneering use of thickly applied and swirling brushstrokes served as inspiration for future artistic movements, including French Impressionism, yet Delacroix was not blindly focused on innovation; Charles VI and Odette de Champdivers is evidence that the artist had his finger firmly on the pulse of French cultural tastes and knew how to cater to popular trends.  As a subject, Charles VI was a fashionable choice, and a popular play based on Charles' life opened in Paris in the spring of 1826, shortly after this painting was completed.  Maurin, one of Delacroix's lithographers, took advantage of the play's opening by issuing a commercial print of the painting only days later.  The energy, emotion, and sheer drama of the scene make both the painting and print appealing as an embodiment of the uniquely romantic sensibility.

A full scale lithograph was made by Maurin and published in Bibliographie de la France (March 11, 1826), p. 205, gravure 156