id: 150079 accession number: 1980.284 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1980.284 updated: 2023-05-19 11:03:07.146000 Still Life with Asparagus, c. 1880. Philippe Rousseau (French, 1816–1887). Oil on fabric; unframed: 36 x 65 cm (14 3/16 x 25 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Noah L. Butkin 1980.284 title: Still Life with Asparagus title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1880 creation date earliest: 1880 creation date latest: 1890 current location: creditline: Bequest of Noah L. Butkin copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Philippe Rousseau (French, 1816–1887) - artist The son of an opera singer, Philippe Rousseau is said to have apprenticed with Gros (q.v.) and Bertin (q.v.). Their impact, however, remains minor, and Rousseau appears to have been largely self-taught. He made his debut at the Salon of 1834, and would exhibit there throughout his life. He initially painted landscapes, often depicting scenes from Normandy. It was not until 1844 that he began exhibiting still lifes. One year later he combined what would become his two principal genres, the still life and the animal painting, in a work entitled The City Rat and the Country Rat (1845, location unknown), for which he received his first Salon prize, a third-class medal. Based on a fable by La Fontaine, this sort of anecdotal painting would become representative of his oeuvre. When he painted animals, he typically chose small ones, such as birds, cats, and dogs, and he often integrated them in a still-life setting. For this latter specialty he had proclaimed Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) "his God." Rousseau paid an impressive tribute to his eighteenth-century predecessor in Chardin et ses modèles (1867, Musée d'Orsay, Paris). In the center of that composition, Rousseau depicted a framed portrait of Chardin surrounded by many of the objects the artist used in his still lifes. Fortune shined on Rousseau and he was adopted by the establishment of the Second Empire-the court of Napoleon III, Princess Mathilde, Baron James de Rothschild, Alexandre Dumas, etc. He thus received a comfortable income at a time when many of his colleagues and friends were living in poverty. His art, moderately realist, gravitated around the styles of such artists as Bonvin (q.v.), but was less "sophisticated"; Vollon, but less "Dutch"; Fantin-Latour (q.v.), but less "idealist"; and Manet (q.v.), but less "radical." --- measurements: Unframed: 36 x 65 cm (14 3/16 x 25 9/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower left: Ph. Rousseau. / à son ami A Arago translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830 - 1900 opening date: 1980-11-12T05:00:00 The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830 - 1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 12, 1980-January 18, 1981). title: Year in Review: 1980 opening date: 1981-06-24T04:00:00 Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981). title: Consuming Passions: The Art of Food and Drink opening date: 1983-07-26T04:00:00 Consuming Passions: The Art of Food and Drink. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 26-October 9, 1983). title: Philippe Rousseau opening date: 1993-09-10T04:00:00 Philippe Rousseau. Van Gogh Museum (organizer) (September 10-November 14, 1993). title: Praised and Ridiculed: French Painting 1820 - 1880 opening date: 2017-11-10T05:00:00 Praised and Ridiculed: French Painting 1820 - 1880. Kunsthaus Zürich, CH-8024 Zürich, Switzerland (organizer) (November 10, 2017-January 28, 2018). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * CMA. Chardin and the Still-Life Tradition in France (1979), 34, 42, 75 (repr.), 76, 90, no. 26.
CMA; Brooklyn Museum; Saint Louis Art Museum; Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum. The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830-1900 (1980-82). Text by Gabriel P. Weisberg. 150, no. 117 (repr.).
CMA; Beck Center for the Cultural Arts, Lakewood, Ohio; Beachwood (Ohio) Museum; Toledo Museum of Art. Consuming Passions: The Art of Food and Drink (1983-84), 9-10, fig. 6, 47.
Southampton, Parrish Art Museum; New York, National Academy of Design. In Support of Liberty: European Paintings at the 1883 Pedestal Fund Art Loan Exhibition (1986), no. 74 (repr.).
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum. Nineteenth-Century Masters 1: Philippe Rousseau 1816-1887 (1993), 63, no. 23, fig. 62. --- PROVENANCE Alfred Arago [1815-1892], Paris date: After 1880- ? footnotes: *
Inscribed “à son ami A Arago,” this painting was given by Rousseau to his friend, Alfred Arago.  Arago was a student of Delaroche and painted genre, history, and landscape paintings.  In 1853, during the most successful period in Rousseau’s career, Arago became Inspecteur des Beaux-Arts, an important post in the fine arts administration. Thus, the painting may have been not only a token of friendship but also a demonstration of Rousseau’s appreciation for Arago’s service. 


citations: Charles Guérin, Lyon date: ? footnotes: *
Bernard Lorenceau of Galerie Brame-Lorenceau furnished CMA with the name Charles Guérin, whom Lorenceau identified as a professor in Lyon who had died by 1983.
citations: (Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 9-10, 1977 (no. 100), sold to Galerie Galerie Brame-Lorenceau) date: 1977 footnotes: *
The names of the consignors to this sale are not disclosed in the catalogue, which identifies the listed works only as coming from the “collection de Madame X et divers amateurs.”  There are no specific indications that Guérin consigned any paintings to this sale, so the source of Rousseau’s painting remains unknown.
citations: (Galerie Brame-Lorenceau, Paris, sold to Noah L. Butkin and Muriel S. Butkin) date: 1977 footnotes: citations: Noah L. [1918-1980] and Muriel S. Butkin [1915-2008], Cleveland, OH, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art as a result of disclaimer by Muriel S. Butkin date: 1977-1980 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1980- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: Rousseau was profoundly influenced by the atmospheric still lifes of Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), whom the artist and other French painters like François Bonvin (1817-1877) rediscovered in the mid-1800s. A comparison with Chardin's work, also shown in this gallery, indicates that Rousseau similarly depicted foodstuffs on a simple kitchen table, concentrating on rich textures and restrained colors. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Weisberg, Gabriel P. The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing, 1830-1900. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980. page number: url: d'Argencourt, Louise, Roger Diederen, and Alisa Luxenberg. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. page number: url: Bernard Lorenceau, letter to Linda Jackson, Feb. 8, 1983. page number: url: Hôtel Drouot. Tableaux modernes. May 9-10, 1977. page number: url: Sylvie Brame, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Jan. 29, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Sylvie Brame, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Jan. 29, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Estate of Noah L. Butkin, Bequests to Cleveland Museum of Art as a result of disclaimer by Murel S. Butkin. Estates, Gifts, and Funds, Series 1, Box 2:14. Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: url: Phillippe Brame, letter to Linda Jackson, Oct. 4, 1983, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Estate of Noah L. Butkin, Bequests to Cleveland Museum of Art as a result of disclaimer by Murel S. Butkin. Estates, Gifts, and Funds, Series 1, Box 2:14. Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: url: Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 560-561, Vol. II, no. 197 url: Koos, Marianne. "Manet and the Reception of Chardin in Nineteenth-Century French Painting." In Praised and Ridiculed: French Painting 1820-1880. Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, ed., 44-55. Munich: Hirmer; Zürich: Kunsthaus Zürich, [2017]. page number: Reproduced: P. 164, cat. 97; Mentioned: P. 50 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1980.284/1980.284_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1980.284/1980.284_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1980.284/1980.284_full.tif