id: 166637 accession number: 2008.358 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.358 updated: 2024-05-17 11:33:39.930000 Joan of Arc, c. 1889. Ernest Meissonier (French, 1815–1891). Graphite, red chalk, colored washes, and black and white gouache; sheet: 18.8 x 30.3 cm (7 3/8 x 11 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.358 title: Joan of Arc title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1889 creation date earliest: 1884 creation date latest: 1894 current location: creditline: Bequest of Muriel Butkin copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: graphite, red chalk, colored washes, and black and white gouache department: Drawings collection: DR - French type: Drawing 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: Sheet: 18.8 x 30.3 cm (7 3/8 x 11 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: blue wove paper (faded in image area to gray-green), laid down on light brown wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: Signed with monogram, lower left translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Exposition Meissonier opening date: 1893-03-01T05:00:00 Exposition Meissonier. Galerie Georges Petit (organizer). title: French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin opening date: 2001-08-26T00:00:00 French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Estate of the artist date: 1891-1893 footnotes: * citations: (his studio sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 18-20, 1893, no. 464) date: 1893 footnotes: *
Wax seal of sale on verso of tertiary support.
citations: Alfred Hartmann, Mulhouse date: after 1893-1899 footnotes: citations: (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 12-15, 1899, no. 92) date: 1899 footnotes: *
In this sale the drawing is described as having a monogram at the right, no longer present on the sheet. 
citations: (sale, Sotheby-Parke-Bernet, New York, October 3, 1975, no. 169, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH) date: 1975 footnotes: citations: Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1975-2008 footnotes: citations: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2008- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Exposition Meissonier. Exh. Cat. Paris: Galerie Georges Petit, 1893. page number: Mentioned: p. 100, no. 464 url: Gréard, M.O. Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier: Ses souvenirs, ses entretiens. Paris: Hachette, 1897. page number: Mentioned: p. 432 url: Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. page number: Mentioned: pp. 126-27, 144, no. 58; Reproduced: p. 127 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.358/2008.358_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.358/2008.358_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.358/2008.358_full.tif