Description

This painting, inspired by Charles Montesquieu's Persian Letters (published in 1721), depicts a eunuch who wanted to marry a harem slave. He experienced a vision of her while smoking his opium pipe, but her little companion holding a knife dripping with blood reminds us that the eunuch's anatomy precludes the fulfillment of his dream. The outline of a hand next to the signature is a khamsa, a symbol used to ward off evil.

Provenance

(Sale, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, April 28, 1977, lot 209, possibly sold to Noah L. and Muriel Butkin) (1977); (Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin, Cleveland, Ohio, given by Muriel S. Butkin to the Cleveland Museum of Art (Possibly 1977-1991); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio (1991-)

A Eunuch's Dream

Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ

1874

Accession Number

1991.173

Medium

oil on wood

Dimensions

Framed: 54 x 74.5 x 5.5 cm (21 1/4 x 29 5/16 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 39.3 x 65.4 cm (15 1/2 x 25 3/4 in.)

Classification

Painting

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of Mrs. Noah L. Butkin

Background & Context

Background Story

Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ (1842-1923) was a French Orientalist painter known for his meticulously rendered scenes of Middle Eastern and classical subjects that combine archaeological detail with narrative drama. A Eunuch's Dream from 1874 depicts a eunuch's dream in the harem of an Oriental palace, combining the Orientalist subject matter that was popular in French academic painting with the meticulous rendering of architectural and decorative detail that distinguishes Lecomte du Nouÿ's work. The 1874 date places this in the period when French Orientalist painting was at the height of its popularity, and the subject of a eunuch's dream allows Lecomte du Nouÿ to exercise his talent for erotic suggestion within the framework of Orientalist narrative.

Cultural Impact

A Eunuch's Dream is an important example of French Orientalist painting because it demonstrates the combination of archaeological detail and erotic narrative that made Orientalist subjects popular in French academic painting. The 1874 painting combines the meticulously rendered architectural and decorative detail that distinguishes Lecomte du Nouÿ's work with the erotic suggestion of the harem subject, creating a painting that is simultaneously a document of Orientalist fantasy and a work of academic virtuosity.

Why It Matters

A Eunuch's Dream is Lecomte du Nouÿ's Orientalist fantasy at its most erotically suggestive: a eunuch's dream in a harem rendered with the archaeological detail and narrative drama that distinguish French academic Orientalism. The 1874 painting combines archaeological precision with the erotic suggestion that made Orientalist subjects popular in the French Salon.

Related Artworks

Sketch for "The Oriental Dream"