id: 150841
accession number: 1982.247
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1982.247
updated: 2024-03-26 01:59:49.202000
A Painter, 1855. Ernest Meissonier (French, 1815–1891). Oil on mahogany; framed: 39 x 33.5 x 6.5 cm (15 3/8 x 13 3/16 x 2 9/16 in.); unframed: 27 x 21.1 cm (10 5/8 x 8 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Noah L. Butkin 1982.247
title: A Painter
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1855
creation date earliest: 1855
creation date latest: 1855
current location: 220 19th Century European
creditline: Gift of Mrs. Noah L. Butkin
copyright:
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culture: France, 19th century
technique: oil on mahogany
department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
type: Painting
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Ernest Meissonier (French, 1815–1891) - artist
Ernest Meissonier had little formal or institutional artistic training, having studied only briefly in Cogniet's (q.v.) studio. Meissonier began his career making woodcuts for book illustrations, which must have served his craftsmanship and influenced his tendency toward working in a small format. From the beginning he was inspired by seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish genre painters, as attested by his first Salon painting, Dutch Burghers (1834, Wallace Collection, London). His subjects would eventually have a more typical French flavor, representing artists, musicians, or members of the bourgeoisie involved in leisurely activities, and mostly in eighteenth-century settings. Meissonier joined the French army during the Austro-Italian War (1859), after which he frequently painted military scenes, such as Napoleon III at Solferino (1863, Musée National du Château de Compiègne). Along with the many small depictions of the soldier's life, Meissonier also produced some military paintings on a grand scale. Such works were his attempt to make history paintings and served to counter the criticism that his subjects were frivolous. His military paintings culminated in a partly finished project of four large canvases depicting events in Napoleon I's military career that occupied him from 1864 through 1876. But no matter the size or subject of his paintings, they were always meticulously executed. The Franco-Prussian War also inspired some important works, such as Ruins of the Tuileries (1871, Musée National du Château de Compiègne). Meissonier's work was extremely popular with the upwardly mobile mercantile elite who appreciated his craftsmanship. Criticism came from artists like Degas (q.v.) and Manet (q.v.), who advocated a more Courbet-like realism, addressing contemporary issues rather than painting idealized reflections of the past. Meissonier led the jury that excluded Courbet (q.v.) from the Salon of 1872 because of his involvement in the Paris Commune in 1871. Yet in 1889 Meissonier was also involved in founding the more progressive artist's organization and exhibitions of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts that seceded from the traditional Société des Artistes Français. Meissonier received many honors and was the first artist to be promoted to the grand croix, the highest rank of the Legion of Honor (1899).
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measurements: Framed: 39 x 33.5 x 6.5 cm (15 3/8 x 13 3/16 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 27 x 21.1 cm (10 5/8 x 8 5/16 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
inscription: Signed lower right: EMeissonier. 1855 [EM in monogram]
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: The Year in Review for 1983
opening date: 1984-02-22T05:00:00
The Year in Review for 1983. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 22-April 8, 1984).
title: Ernest Meissonier: Rétrospective
opening date: 1993-03-25T05:00:00
Ernest Meissonier: Rétrospective. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 69001 Lyon, France (organizer) (March 25-June 27, 1993).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* {'description': 'Salon. Palais des Champs-Elysées, Paris, France (1857).', 'opening_date': None}
* {'description': 'International Exhibition. London, United Kingdom (1871).', 'opening_date': None}
* {'description': 'The Artist and the Studio in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (April 5 -August 13, 1978).', 'opening_date': '1978-04-05T00:00:00'}
* {'description': 'Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY (1902)', 'opening_date': '1902-01-01T00:00:00'}
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PROVENANCE
Countess Lehon [1808-1880], Paris, France, her sale, April 2-3,1861, lot 10, sold to Vente X . . . de Vienne
date: 1861
footnotes:
citations:
Vente X . . . de Vienne, 1861, (possibly Georg Plach [1818-1885], Vienna, Austria
date: 1861-1871
footnotes:
*
There are at least two sales at Drouot, 20 April and 1-2 May 1861, though neither catalogue lists a painting by Meissonier.
citations:
G. Simpson, by 1871
date: by 1871
footnotes:
citations:
John Grant Morris [1811-1897], Allerton Priory, Liverpool, United Kingdom,1883, sold to Samuel P. Avery
date: 1883-1884
footnotes:
citations:
(Samuel P. Avery, New York, NY, by 1884, sold to William H. Vanderbilt)
date: by 1884
footnotes:
citations:
William H. Vanderbuilt [1821-1885], New York, NY, by descent to his son, George W. Vanderbuilt
date:
footnotes:
citations:
George W. Vanderbilt [1862-1914], New York, NY, by descent to Cornelius Vanderbilt III
date:
footnotes:
citations:
Cornelius Vanderbilt III [1983-1942], New York, NY by descent to his widow, Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III
date: 1919-1945
footnotes:
citations:
Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III, his widow', [1870-1953], New York, NY, consigned to Parke-Bernet for sale
date: 1945
footnotes:
citations:
(Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, NY, April 18-19, 1945, sold to Mrs. Derek Spence)
date: 1945
footnotes:
citations:
Mrs. Derek Spence [1905-1984], New York, NY, February 1976, consigned to Hammer Gallery
date: 1945-1976
footnotes:
citations:
(Hammer Gallery, New York, NY, July 1976, sold to Shepherd Gallery)
date: 1976
footnotes:
citations:
(Shephard Gallery, New York, NY, July 1976, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin)
date: 1976
footnotes:
citations:
Mrs. Noah L. Butkin [1915-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
date: 1976-1982
footnotes:
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1982-
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
digital description:
wall description:
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Auvray, Louis. Exposition des Beaux Arts Salon 1859 par Louis Auvray. Paris: Emile Allard, 1857.
page number: Mentioned: P. 49
url:
Camp, M. de. Le Salon de 1857: Peinture, Sculpture. Paris: Librairie Nouvelle, 1857.
page number: Mentioned: P. 54
url:
Burty, Philippe. "Les Oeuvres de M. Meissonier et les Photographies de M. Bingham." Gazette des Beaux-arts 20 (1866):78-87.
page number: Mentioned: P. 86
url:
Mollett, John W. Meissonier. New York, NY: Scribner and Welford, 1882.
page number:
url:
Shinn, Earl. Mr. Vanderbilt's House and Collection, Described by Edward Strahan [Pseud.]. Boston, MA: G. Barrie, 1883.
page number: Reproduced: p. 48, vol. 4
url:
Waters, Clara Erskine Clement, and Laurence Hutton. Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works. A Handbook Containing Two Thousand and Fifty Biographical Sketches. Boston, MA: Ticknor, 1884.
page number: Reproduced: p. 209, vol. 2
url:
The Complete Works of E. Meissonier: With Biography. New York. NY: J.W. Bouton, 1884.
page number: Reproduced: pl.xxxviii
url:
Durand-Greville, E. "La Peinture aux Etats-Unis: Les Galeries Privees." Gazette des Beaux-arts 36 (1887): 250-255.
page number: Reproduced: P. 252
url:
Chaumelin, Marius. Portraits d'Artistes. Paris: C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1887.
page number: Mentioned: P. 43, no. 55
url:
Stranahan, Clara Cornelia (Harrison). A History of French Painting from Its Earliest to Its Latest Practice: Including an Account of the French Academy of Painting, Its Salons, Schools of Instruction and Regulations. London, United Kingdom: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1889.
page number:
url:
Gréard, Octave. Meissonier, His Life and His Art. New York, NY: A.C. Armstrong, 1897.
page number: Reproduced: p. 229
url:
Avery, Samuel Putnam, Madeleine Fidell-Beaufort, H. L. Kleinfield, and Jeanne K. Welcher. The Diaries, 1871-1882, of Samuel P. Avery, Art Dealer. New York, NY: Arno Press, 1979.
page number: Mentioned: p. 726-728; Reproduced: fig. 75
url:
Lee, Sherman E. " Annual Report for 1982." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LXX, no. 6 (June, 1983): 230-232.
page number: Reproduced: p. 231
url:
Turner, Evan H. "Year in Review for 1983." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LXXI no. 2 (February, 1984): 39-64.
page number: Reproduced: p. 61, fig. 19;
url:
Vanderbilt, William H. Collection of W.H. Vanderbilt, 640 Fifth Avenue. New York. 1884.
page number: Mentioned: P. 25, no. 41
url:
Patterson, Jerry E. The Vanderbilts. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1989.
page number: Mentioned: P. 105
url:
Placidi, Kathleen S. "Beyond Bootblacks: "The Boat Builder" and the Art of John George Brown." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 10 (1990): 366-82.
page number: Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 377-78
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161306
Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993.
page number: Reproduced: P. 152
url:
Gotlieb, Marc. The Plight of Emulation: Ernest Meissonier and French Salon Painting. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press, 1996.
page number: Reproduced: p. 230, no. 53, fig. 38
url:
Becker, Edwin, and Elizabeth Prettejohn. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1997.
page number: Reproduced: p. 94
url:
D'Argencourt, Louise and Roger Diederen. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings, Part Four; European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.
page number: Reproduced: p. 148
url:
Hungerford, Constance Cain, and Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier. Ernest Meissonier: Master in His Genre. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
page number: Reproduced: p. 67, fig. 28
url:
Antigüedad, Ma. Dolores, and Amaya Alzaga Ruiz. Colecciones, expolio, museos y mercado artístico en España en los siglos XVIII y XIX. Madrid, Spain: Editorial Universitaria Ramón Areces, 2011.
page number: Reproduced: p. 321, fig. 2
url:
David Pullins, review of Delicious Decadence. The Rediscovery of French Eighteenth-Century Painting in the Nineteenth Century, ed. by Guillaume Faroult, Monica Preti and Christoph Vogtherr. The Burlington Magazine 157, no. 1349 (August 2015): 550.
page number: Reproduced: P. 550, fig. 27
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1982.247/1982.247_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1982.247/1982.247_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1982.247/1982.247_full.tif