Description
Meissonier often depicted artists and musicians of the 1600s and 1700s engaged in their work. This artist is busy painting a small canvas depicting a nymph and satyr. The artist’s 18th-century costume—nearly 100 years out of date at the time of the painting’s creation—transforms the scene into a charming historical fiction. Meissonier exhibited the painting at the Paris Salon of 1857.
Provenance
Countess Lehon [1808-1880], Paris, France, her sale, April 2-3,1861, lot 10, sold to Vente X . . . de Vienne (1861); Vente X . . . de Vienne, 1861, (possibly Georg Plach [1818-1885], Vienna, Austria (1861-1871); G. Simpson, by 1871 (by 1871); John Grant Morris [1811-1897], Allerton Priory, Liverpool, United Kingdom,1883, sold to Samuel P. Avery (1883-1884); (Samuel P. Avery, New York, NY, by 1884, sold to William H. Vanderbilt) (by 1884); William H. Vanderbuilt [1821-1885], New York, NY, by descent to his son, George W. Vanderbuilt; George W. Vanderbilt [1862-1914], New York, NY, by descent to Cornelius Vanderbilt III; Cornelius Vanderbilt III [1983-1942], New York, NY by descent to his widow, Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III (1919-1945); Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III, his widow', [1870-1953], New York, NY, consigned to Parke-Bernet for sale (1945); (Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, NY, April 18-19, 1945, sold to Mrs. Derek Spence) (1945); Mrs. Derek Spence [1905-1984], New York, NY, February 1976, consigned to Hammer Gallery (1945-1976); (Hammer Gallery, New York, NY, July 1976, sold to Shepherd Gallery) (1976); (Shephard Gallery, New York, NY, July 1976, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin) (1976); Mrs. Noah L. Butkin [1915-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art (1976-1982); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1982-)
Accession Number
1982.247
Medium
oil on mahogany
Dimensions
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.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Noah L. Butkin
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting French
Background & Context
Background Story
Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891) was the most celebrated French painter of his generation, famous for his meticulously detailed small-scale paintings of historical and genre subjects. A Painter, from 1855, is a self-referential subject — an artist at work in his studio — that allows Meissonier to display his technical virtuosity on a subject close to his own experience. The mahogany panel support provides the smooth surface that Meissonier required for his fine brushwork, and the small scale of the painting concentrates the viewer's attention on the exquisite detail that was his trademark. Every texture — the painter's smock, the canvas on the easel, the studio furniture — is rendered with a precision that approaches the impossible.
Cultural Impact
Meissonier's genre paintings of artists at work participate in a tradition of studio scenes that stretches back to 17th-century Dutch painting, but his approach is uniquely meticulous. Where a Dutch studio scene would suggest the texture of objects through broad handling, Meissonier renders each texture individually, creating an effect of hyper-realism that anticipates the photographic precision of later academic painting and, paradoxically, the exact observation of the Realist movement that would eventually displace him.
Why It Matters
A Painter is Meissonier's technique made subject: an artist at work, rendered with the microscopic precision that made Meissonier the most admired and most expensive painter in France. The mahogany panel is the perfect support for this kind of painting — smooth enough to receive the finest brushwork, hard enough to preserve it forever.
