René François Xavier Prinet

Prince Regent of Bavaria (acquired in 1901 at the L'Art Français Contemporain, L'Union Artistique Wurtembourgeosie de Stuttgart)
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, October 12, 1994, lot 146, illustrated
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Paris, Salon, 1901, no. 750 (as La Sonate à Kreutzer)
Munich, 1901
Stuttgart, L'Art Français Contemporain, L'Union Artistique Wurtembourgeosie de Stuttgart, 1901

R.X. Prinet 1861/1946: Belfort, Musée d'art et d'histoire, 3 juillet-14 septembre 1986: Vesoul, Musée Georges Garret, 26 septembre-23 novembre 1986: Paris, Musée Bourdelle, 10 décembre 1986-1 février 1987, exh. cat., Belfort, 1986, n.p., illustrated

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in very good condition. The picture is painted on canvas and mounted on panel, which in turn has been backed with a piece of canvas. In the lower left there are areas which read slightly darker under ultraviolet light but it does not appear that the painting is damaged in any way and these darker areas could correspond either to original paint or to retouching. The paint layer may be slightly dirty and the varnish is slightly opaque. There are a few small white specks in the lower right which should be attended to. The painting is clearly in lovely condition.
"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."

The subject of the present work comes from Leo Tolstoy's novella of the same title published in 1889 (though quickly censored for its controversial content) and recounts the tale of Pozdnyshev, a man who has abandoned music while his wife continues to play the piano, often with the violinist, Trukachevsky.  Pozdnyshev's jealousy becomes all-consuming after attending the duo's recital of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, a piece known for its musical range suggesting emotions from dark anger to deep meditation to exuberant joy (soon after its debut in 1803 the "violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major for piano and violin, Opus 47" was dedicated to virtuoso violinist George Bridgetower, but when Beethoven felt Bridgetower insulted a female friend it was rededicated to the French violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer).  Pozdnyshev confuses the impassioned playing with a physical affair and, unable to rid his mind of the haunting music and the images it inspires, he takes his wife's life in a murderous rage.  As depicted by Prinet, the violinist pulls the pianist from her stool, his hand sinking into the golden fabric of her gown as her fingers brush the keys. The soft illumination and green cast from the small shaded candle leave the room with deep pools of shadow while the edges of the room dissolve into haze.  In his narrative, Tolstoy does not make it clear if the embrace was anything more than Pozdnyshev's delusion, making Prinet's dream-like setting particularly effective and suggests an interest in the symbolist techniques of his friend and fellow artist Edmond Aman-Jean. 

In 1941, decades after the Kreutzer Sonata's exhibition at the Paris Salon of 1901, it was chosen by the Dana perfume company for a marketing campaign designed to promote Tabu, a new scent created in 1931 (R.X. Prinet 1861/1946, exh. cat., n.p.). In a series of advertisements widely published over decades in fashion magazines and newspapers, an image of the Kreutzer Sonata hung on walls behind elegantly dressed models personifying the "forbidden" perfume, while others illustrated the painting alone with teasing tag-lines like "when you want what's going on to go on and on" (figs. 1, 2)  Tabu's intoxicating floral, spicy, and musky notes became synonymous with Prinet's sensual image and the lasting popularity of the campaign earned Kreutzer Sonata's fame in depicting the "longest kiss in advertising history."