Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Noüy

Paris, Salon des artistes français, 1904, no. 1084.

Péladan, 'Le Salon des Artistes français', in La Revue hebdomadaire, vol. 13, 7 May 1904, p. 10;

L. Roger-Milès, 'Les Salons de 1904, Exposition de la société des artistes français', in L’Eclair : journal politique quotidien absolument indépendant. Supplément gratuit, vol. 17, no. 5633, 30 April 1904, p. 6;

Thiébault-Sisson, 'Salon de 1904', in Le Temps. Supplément, vol. 44, no. 15658, 30 April 1904, p. 1;

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L. Baschet (dir.), Catalogue illustré du Salon de 1904, 1^st May 1904, no. 1083;

L. Plée, 'Les salons de 1904 : La société des artistes français', in Les Annales Politiques et littéraire, vol. 22, no. 1088, 1^st May 1904, p. 276;

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Anonymous, 'Société des artistes français', in Le Tam Tam, vol. 45, 14 May 1904, p. 5;

F. Polak, L’Art et la Mode, vol. 25, no. 21, 21 May 1904, p. 413;

G. Mourey, 'Le Salon de la Société des Artistes Français', in Paris Illustré, vol. 23, no. 18, June 1904, rep. p. 7;

R. Diederen, From Homer to the Harem: The art of Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ, cat. exh., Dahesh Museum of Art, 2004, p. 186, no. 302.

Once a pupil of Charles Gleyre, Emile Signol and Jean-Léon Gérôme, to whom he was particularly close, Jean-Jules Antoine Lecomte du Noüy (1842–1923) was a noteworthy figure in the academic and Orientalist movements of the late nineteenth centuries. He was admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1861 and from 1863 began to exhibit his paintings (as well as sculptures) to the Salon des Artistes Français, with Francesca da Rimini and Paolo in the Cavern (1863, Sète, Musée Paul Valéry). He was frequently rewarded for his efforts and some of his works were bought by the State, which also commissioned him, with the city of Paris, to produce paintings for the Trinité Church.

Lecomte du Noüy made his name with Orientalist paintings, supported by drawings he brought back from his travels to the East and the Mediterranean, starting in 1865. Alongside historical and literary subjects, he created theatrical scenes that were sometimes sensual, bordering on the strange, marked by the Neo-Gréc style derived from Gérôme, as seen in A Eunuch’s Dream (1874, Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.173).

At the Salon des Artistes Français in 1904 he showed several works, including The Sorceress, painted the previous year and regarded by his contemporaries as one of the most striking works on display. At the interface between his scenes of harems and his smokers of hallucinatory hookahs, the painting was reproduced as a photograph by the art dealers Goupil. Lecomte du Noüy demonstrates the high quality of his draughtsmanship in this painting, but adopts a more visible brushstroke, in keeping with the works presented at the Salons in the early twentieth century.

Crouching with her legs folded, the young and seductive witch turns her head to look slyly at the viewer. In a bubbling cauldron close beside her, ingredients are being dissolved, including a lizard whose tail can be seen. Naked, with a remnant of fabric wrapped around her right leg, she seems to be constrained by the frame, drawing the viewer into a more intimate scene, face to face with the subject. Lecomte du Noüy immerses us in a nocturnal atmosphere, playing on the chiaroscuro effects produced by the flames from the cauldron and the steam escaping from it.

Various iconographical elements traditionally associated with witches can be seen, such as the fire, the cauldron and the bundles of twigs. She appears to be sitting on an animal skin, perhaps that of a goat – an animal associated with the devil and witches’ sabbaths. Under her arm she holds something which may be a wand, a spindle or perhaps even a wind instrument used for enchantments, as in fairy tales. The frame itself contributes to this play of historical and folkloric references, with bats in the spandrels and guilloche motifs in a black surround reminiscent of those made in the seventeenth century, the great era of witches.

Seated on an animal skin surrounded by vegetation, recalling myths of witches lurking in forests, combining nature and the animal world, the witch eyes us, a glass of potion in her left hand. Wearing flowers in her hair, she lures the viewer with her right hand. A winged cupid, holding a bow and arrow, suggests that the brew may be a love potion. However, the lizard whose head is submerged in the cauldron and the witch’s gesture as she holds the glass close, could also indicate that she has changed appearance in order to seduce and deceive, having abandoned on the ground the bundles of twigs associated with old witches and discarded her animal skin. This painting thus shows how the representation of witches had evolved in the collective imaginary of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From the terrifying figures of Baldung Grien, they have become enchantresses, as demonstrated by our Witch or by Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses by John William Waterhouse (1891, Oldham, Gallery Oldham, inv. 3.55/9).

The artist’s preparatory work is known to us from his drawings, including a study for the figure in black pencil and pastel on paper (Galerie A. Laurentin, Paris). It is also worth noting the existence of a small oil on canvas, preparatory to the composition (Galerie Hann, 1995), which allows us to observe the evolution of the artist’s thoughts about his work: he had initially envisaged setting the scene in a kitchen interior. The absence of the cupid in the preparatory version and the choice of a different setting in the final version points to Lecomte de Noüy’s aspiration to make his painting a sensual work, with a bewitching figure to enchant the viewer.