id: 153382 accession number: 1986.68 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1986.68 updated: 2024-03-26 01:59:59.914000 On a Terrace, 1867. Ernest Meissonier (French, 1815–1891). Oil on wood panel; framed: 50.5 x 40 x 8 cm (19 7/8 x 15 3/4 x 3 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Clara Louise Gehring Bickford 1986.68 title: On a Terrace title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1867 creation date earliest: 1867 creation date latest: 1867 current location: 220 19th Century European creditline: Bequest of Clara Louise Gehring Bickford copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: oil on wood panel department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- 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). --- measurements: Framed: 50.5 x 40 x 8 cm (19 7/8 x 15 3/4 x 3 1/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower right: "EMeissonier 1867 [EM in monogram] translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review for 1986 opening date: 1987-02-04T05:00:00 Year in Review for 1986. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-March 15, 1987). 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). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Exposition Meissonier. Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, (1893).', 'opening_date': None} * {'description': 'Sur un balcon, collection de M. Leroy, (1867).', 'opening_date': None} --- PROVENANCE Ernest Secrétan [1836-1899], Paris, France date: footnotes: citations: (Georges Petit Gallery, Paris, France, March 15, 1908, sold to to F. F. van der Doucht, Brussels, Belgium, according to Knoedler sale book no. 7, p. 270, 15 March 1908). date: footnotes: citations: (E. Le Roy & Co., by 1893, according to exh. cat., Georges Petit, 1893). date: by 1893 footnotes: citations: (Le Roy consigned it to Knoedler & Co., Paris, France, stock no. 8878a.) date: footnotes: citations: (Knoedler & Co., New York, NY, March 15, 1899, sold to Samuel L. Bronson) date: 1897-1899 footnotes: citations: Samuel L. Bronson [1834-1917] New Haven, CT date: 1899-1901 footnotes: citations: (Bought back by Knoedler, 8 May 1901 (stock number 9444) and sold 10 March 1908 to Thomas Henry Burchell) date: 1901-1908 footnotes: citations: Thomas Henry Burchell [-1942] New York, NY, sold it back to Knoedler, November 3, 1910 (stock number 12199). date: 1908-1910 footnotes: citations: (Knoedler Gallery, New York, NY, April 15, 1911, sold to Frederick Gehring) date: 1910-1911 footnotes: citations: Clara Louise Gehring Bickford [1903-1985] Cleveland, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1986 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1986- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS The Complete Works of E. Meissonier: With Biography. New York, NY: J.W. Bouton, 1884. page number: url: Meissonier, Jean Louis Ernest. The Complete Works of E. Meissonier: With Biography. New York: J.W. Bouton, 1884. page number: Reproduced: pl. xlii url: Chaumelin, Marius. Portraits d'Artistes. Paris: C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1887. page number: Mentioned: P. 51, no. 137 url: Gréard, Octave. Meissonier, His Life and His Art. New York. NY: A.C. Armstrong, 1897. page number: Reproduced: p. 194 url: Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1986." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LXXIV, no. 2 (February, 1987):39-79. page number: Reproduced: on cover; Mentioned: p. 62, no. 39 url: 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: Mentioned: p. 188; Reproduced: p. 246, fig. 65 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. 149 url: Thion, Stéphane. French armies of the Thirty Years' War. Auzielle, France: LRT, 2008. page number: Reproduced: Cover and Title pages url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1986.68/1986.68_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1986.68/1986.68_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1986.68/1986.68_full.tif