Description
The chair, brazier, table, and the setting all show Vien's interest in bringing archaeological accuracy to a new level of precision. Yet his delicate handling and graceful palette derive squarely from 18th-century French painting. The gesture of the melancholic figure, with her head on her hand, has roots going back to the Renaissance. Nonetheless, the painting has a wistful rather than tragic tone. Indeed, images of women in interiors, contemplating a letter with longing or sadness, derive from earlier Dutch paintings of daily life, here transformed into an ancient context.
Provenance
Madame Marie-Thérèse Geoffrin [1699-1777], Paris, France (Probably from 1757); Jean Louis Antoine le Vaillant de Damery, Chevalier de l’Ordre Royal Militaire de St-Louis [1723-1803] (c. 1765); Comte Jean-Baptiste Dubarry [1723-1794], Toulouse, France (Until 1774); (Sale: Jean-Pierre-Baptiste Le Brun and Pierre Remy, Paris, Dubarry sale, Nov. 21, 1774, no. 93, probably bought in) (Nov. 21, 1774); (Pierre Remy, Paris, France) (1774-); Louis François, 6th Prince de Conti [1717-1776], Paris, France (Until 1776); (Sale: Pierre Remy, Paris, France, Prince de Conti sale, April 17, 1777, no. 732, sold to Quenet) (April 17, 1777); Quenet, Paris, France (1777-); Jean Paul André des Rasins, Marquis de Saint-Marc [1723-1818], Paris, France, by descent to his daughter, Marie de la Roze (Until 1818); Marie de la Roze (Probably 1818 - 1859); (Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Marquis de Saint-Marc sale, Paris, Feb. 23, 1859, no. 17) (Feb. 23, 1859); (Wildenstein & Company, New York, NY, sold to a private collector, UK) (1955-1980); Private noble collection, UK, sold to Danny Katz and Simon Dickinson through William Thuillier (1980 - probably 1995); (William Thuillier, Paris, France, sold to Danny Katz and Simon Dickinson) (1995); (Danny Katz and Simon Dickinson, London, the latter bought out by the former) (1995); Danny Katz, London, sold to Emmanuel Moatti and Jack Kilgore (1995); (Emmanuel Moatti and Jack Kilgore, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (1995-1996); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio (1996-)
Accession Number
1996.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Framed: 86.4 x 76.2 x 6.5 cm (34 x 30 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 68 x 55 cm (26 3/4 x 21 5/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809) was a French painter known for the elegantly composed, classically inspired paintings that make him one of the most important precursors of the Neoclassical tradition. Sweet Melancholy from 1756 depicts a figure in a state of sweet melancholy in the elegantly composed, classically inspired manner that distinguishes Vien's best work from the more general painting of his contemporaries. Vien was an important precursor of Neoclassicism who helped move French painting away from the Rococo toward the classically inspired manner that would dominate French art in the late 18th century, and the 1756 date places this in his most productive period.
Cultural Impact
Sweet Melancholy is important in the history of French painting because it demonstrates the elegantly composed, classically inspired manner that Vien brought to painting as one of the most important precursors of Neoclassicism. Vien's elegantly composed, classically inspired paintings—helping move French painting away from the Rococo toward the classically inspired manner that would dominate French art—represent one of the most important transitions in the history of French painting, and the 1756 painting shows this transition at its most elegantly composed.
Why It Matters
Sweet Melancholy is Vien's elegantly composed pre-Neoclassical painting: a figure in a state of sweet melancholy rendered in the classically inspired manner of one of the most important precursors of Neoclassicism. The 1756 painting shows the transition from Rococo to Neoclassicism at its most elegantly composed.
![Saint Bernard and Saint Catherine of Alexandria with the Virgin of the Annunciation [right panel]](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/e6890364-4d99-4684-a62b-5060ee3c3446/full/400,/0/default.jpg)
