Description
In 1809, the popular young French military hero General Auguste Colbert died at a battle in Spain. The following year, Schnetz depicted the moment of Colbert's death. This is the study for a much larger painting exhibited at the Paris Salon, but now lost. The exploits of Napoleon and his army were popular subjects for French artists whose work was shown in official exhibitions.
Provenance
Versailles sale, Palais des Congrès, 7 April 1974 (lot 28), La mort d'un général, canvas, 50 x 60 cm, for ff 4,200 to Shepherd Gallery, New York. Bought in November 1976 by Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, Cleveland. Bequeathed to the CMA in 1980.
Accession Number
1980.285
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
Unframed: 50 x 61 cm (19 11/16 x 24 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting French
Background & Context
Background Story
Victor Schnetz (1787-1870) was a French painter known for the dramatically composed historical paintings that make him one of the accomplished painters of the French Neoclassical tradition. The Death of General Colbert from c. 1809/1810 depicts the death of General Colbert in the dramatically composed, precisely observed manner that distinguishes Schnetz's best work from the more general historical painting of his contemporaries. General Colbert was a French general who died during the Napoleonic Wars, and the painting shows Schnetz's talent for combining dramatic composition with the precise observation of historical detail that is his most distinctive contribution. Schnetz later became the director of the French Academy in Rome, one of the most important positions in French art.
Cultural Impact
The Death of General Colbert is important in the history of French historical painting because it demonstrates the dramatically composed, precisely observed manner that Schnetz brought to historical subjects as one of the accomplished painters of the French Neoclassical tradition. Schnetz's dramatically composed, precisely observed historical paintings—combining dramatic composition with the precise observation of historical detail—represent one of the accomplished traditions in French Neoclassical painting, and the c. 1809/1810 painting shows this tradition at its most dramatically composed.
Why It Matters
The Death of General Colbert is Schnetz's dramatically composed Neoclassical historical painting: the death of a Napoleonic general rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the accomplished painters of the French Neoclassical tradition. The c. 1809/1810 painting shows the dramatic composition and precise observation of historical detail that make Schnetz distinctive.
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