19th Century European Paintings
19th Century European Paintings
PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
JEAN LECOMTE DU NOUŸ | Rêve d'Orient
Auction Closed
July 9, 02:03 PM GMT
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property of a Private Collector
JEAN LECOMTE DU NOUŸ
1842 - 1923
Rêve d'Orient
signed and dated Lecomte du Nouy 1904 lower right
oil on canvas
69 by 120cm., 27¼ by 47in.
The final in a series of paintings of hallucinating reclining men smoking a water pipe, the present work is the culmination of Lecomte du Nouÿ's developing thoughts on, and ambitions for, the subject. Whereas Sleep of the Chieftain (c. 1873; location unknown), The Dream of a Eunuch (1874; Cleveland Museum of Art), and The Dream of Cosrou (Salon 1875; location unknown) are illustrations of a letter by Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu's (1689-1755) Lettres persanes (Persian Letters, 1721), the present work, according to Guy de Montgailhard, the artist's biographer, friend, and admirer, was inspired by novelist Théophile Gautier's La Mille et Deuxième Nuit (The One Thousand and Second Night, 1842). A peri (a supernatural being in Persian folklore) descends on a beam of light from an assembly of heavenly creatures to the poet Hassan as he dreams on his terrace.
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 17 June 1986, lot 32
Galerie Nathaf, Paris (purchased at the above sale)
Purchased from the above by the present owner
Guy de Montgailhard, Lecomte du Nouÿ, Paris, 1906, p. 84
Roger de Diederen, From Homer to the Harem: The Art of Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ, New York, 2004, p. 98, cited; p. 100, fig. 94, illustrated (as An Oriental Dream); p. 187, no. 304, catalogued
The final in a series of paintings of hallucinating reclining men smoking a water pipe, the present work is the culmination of Lecomte du Nouÿ's developing thoughts on, and ambitions for, the subject. Whereas Sleep of the Chieftain (c. 1873; location unknown), The Dream of a Eunuch (1874; Cleveland Museum of Art), and The Dream of Cosrou (Salon 1875; location unknown) are illustrations of a letter by Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu's (1689-1755) Lettres persanes (Persian Letters, 1721), the present work, according to Guy de Montgailhard, the artist's biographer, friend, and admirer, was inspired by novelist Théophile Gautier's La Mille et Deuxième Nuit (The One Thousand and Second Night, 1842). A peri (a supernatural being in Persian folklore) descends on a beam of light from an assembly of heavenly creatures to the poet Hassan as he dreams on his terrace.