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Cleopatra and Caesar (painting)

Cleopatra and Caesar (French: Cléopâtre et César), also known as Cleopatra Before Caesar, is an oil on canvas painting by the French Academic artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, completed in 1866. The work was originally commissioned by the French courtesan La Païva, but she was unhappy with the finished painting and returned it to Gérôme. It was exhibited at the Salon of 1866 and the Royal Academy of Arts in 1871.

Cleopatra and Caesar
ArtistJean-Léon Gérôme
Year1866
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions183 cm × 129.5 cm (72 in × 51.0 in)
LocationPrivate collection

Gérôme's painting is one of the earliest modern depictions of Cleopatra emerging from a carpet in the presence of Julius Caesar, a minor historical inaccuracy that arose out of the translation of a scene from Plutarch's Life of Caesar and the semantic change of the word "carpet" over time. The work is considered a classic example of Egyptomania and was mass-produced by Goupil, allowing it to reach a wide audience.

The painting was held by California banker Darius Ogden Mills and remained in the Mills family art collection for over a century until it was sold to a private collector in 1990.

Background

 
Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1886

Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904) was a nineteenth century French painter and sculptor.[1] At the age of twenty-three, he came to the attention of the art world at the Salon of 1847 with The Cock Fight (1846), a Neo-Grec painting that was praised by Théophile Gautier.[2] With works informed by his frequent travels throughout the Middle East and visits to Egypt, Gérôme specialized in historical and Orientalist painting and became known as a leader of the Academic art movement.[1] According to historian Charles Sowerwine, Gérôme

painted erotic subjects with a photographic approach and sensual charge, but avoided 'indecency' by the use of Oriental and historical contexts . . . To us, Gérôme's nudes seem pornographic, but to contemporaries they were idealized by their removal from contemporary society and their insertion in the Oriental context.[3]

French writer Prosper Mérimée first proposed the subject of Cleopatra and Caesar in a letter sent to Gérôme in December 1860.[4][5] La Païva, a wealthy French courtesan, later commissioned the painting from Gérôme, intending it for display in the Hôtel de la Païva, her mansion on the Champs-Élysées. According to American art critic Earl Shinn, the work was originally painted on silk and was designed as a "transparency to be lowered or raised midway of a long saloon" in La Païva's mansion, "which it was desirable to divide occasionally into two".[6]

Development

 
Pencil study in preparation for the painting

Gérôme made at least two previous oil paintings and a number of sketches in preparation for the work. One shows Cleopatra lying on the ground stretching out to Julius Caesar with Apollodorus crouching behind her. In one variation before the finished version, Caesar is shown by himself with his hands on the desk (instead of outstretched) without his four secretaries. When the work was finished in 1866, Cleopatra's position changed to show her standing before Caesar with Apollodorus bent down beside her.[7]

Gérôme painted the scene based on the meeting between Cleopatra and Caesar written in the Life of Caesar by Greek historian Plutarch (c. AD 46 – AD 120) more than a century after the incident took place.[8] Even though Gérôme visited Egypt in 1857, where George W. Whiting of Rice University notes "he acquired numerous abundant local color and exact detail" that informed the painting of Cleopatra and Caesar,[9] the Egyptian background setting in the work is derived from a plate in a volume from the Description de l'Égypte (1809–29) that depicts a temple at Deir el-Medina.[10]

Completion and exhibition

La Païva disliked the finished painting she had commissioned and returned it to Gérôme. Ackerman notes that La Païva felt the work was too expensive.[4] Gérôme modified the painting by adding canvas to the back for strength, and it was subsequently purchased by his father-in-law, Adolphe Goupil (1806–1893) of Goupil & Cie, the leading art dealership in nineteenth-century France. Gérôme first met Goupil in 1859 and married his daughter Marie several years later.[11] Cleopatra and Caesar was one of three works Gérôme presented at the Salon of 1866 where it was exhibited with the title César et Cléopâtre.[12][9] The painting appeared at the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition in 1871 under the longer name Cléopâtre apportée à César dans un tapis (Cleopatra brought to Caesar in a carpet).[12][13]

Description

 
One of two alternate versions

The painting depicts the year 47 BC, when Cleopatra stands before Julius Caesar after Apollodorus, her servant, has just finished smuggling her into the palace inside a rug. The figures are shown approximately half life-size.[4] Since the 1866 exhibition, the work has become known by other titles, such as Cleopatra Before Caesar, and more recently, Cleopatra and Caesar.[7][14]

Critical reception

The American Egyptomania project at George Mason University describes the painting as a classic example of Egyptomania, containing "sex, slavery, nudity, and decadence".[6] Lucy H. Hooper called it a companion piece to Gérôme's earlier work, Phryne before the Areopagus (1861).[1] The painting was one of two notable depictions of Cleopatra from the nineteenth century along with Cleopatra and the Peasant (1838) by Eugène Delacroix.[15]

Historical inaccuracy

A translation of Plutarch's Life of Caesar by John Langhorne and his brother William published in 1770 was the first source to use the word "carpet" to describe the material used by Cleopatra's servant to sneak her into the palace. Although the original meaning used by Plutarch was more akin to what is today known as a duffel bag, at the time of Langhorne's translation a carpet meant a type of "thick fabric", not an actual rug. But by the nineteenth century, semantic change led to the word taking on a different meaning. The legend of Cleopatra hiding in a rug, although historically inaccurate, became the most popular image, with Gérôme one of the first to popularize it in modern art.[8]

Influence

 
A Goupil illustration (1909)

Gérôme's professional relationship with art collector Adolphe Goupil allowed his paintings to become mass-produced in the form of engravings and photographs, reaching more people and impacting the wider culture throughout Britain and the United States.[11][16] Over time, both theatrical and Hollywood productions about Cleopatra looked to Gérôme's painting for inspiration.[note 1][17] Whiting argues that Gérôme's work may have influenced Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra (1898), particularly the carpet scene in Act III.[9] Many of Gérôme's history paintings influenced the composition of cinematic scenes portraying ancient history.[17]

Provenance

The painting was bought by California banker, philanthropist, and New York real estate developer Darius Ogden Mills in the 1870s and remained in the Mills family art collection until it was sold to a private collector in 1990.[18][19]

Notes

  1. ^ Not just theatre and film but also art. Dream of the Shulamite (1934), an oil on canvas by American painter R. H. Ives Gammell, is said to show the influence of Gérôme's Cleopatra and Caesar, in both its idea and composition. See Ackerman, Gerald M. and Elizabeth Ives Hunter (2001). Transcending Vision: R. H. Ives Gammell 1893–1981. R.H. Ives Gammell Studios Trust. p. 104. OCLC 47012809.

References

  1. ^ a b c Hooper, Lucy H. (1877). "Léon Gérôme." The Art Journal, 3: 26–28. (subscription required)
  2. ^ Musée d'Orsay (2006). Jean-Léon Gérôme. "Young Greeks Attending a Cock Fight, also called The Cock Fight." Retrieved October 23, 2015.
  3. ^ Sowerwine, Charles (2009). France Since 1870: Culture, Society and the Making of the Republic. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 46-47. OCLC 226357013.ISBN 9781137013859.
  4. ^ a b c Ackerman, Gerald M. (1986). The Life and Work of Jean-Léon Gérôme. Sotheby's Publications. p. 218. OCLC 13422214. ISBN 978-0-85667-311-5.
  5. ^ Bovet, Alfred (1884). Lettres autographes composant la collection de m. Alfred Bovet. Paris: Charavay Freres. p. 320. OCLC 83284990.
  6. ^ a b Shinn, Earl [Edward Strahan] (1881). Gerome: A Collection of the Works of J.L. Gerome in One Hundred Photogravures. Volume 10, Plate 6. Samuel L. Hall. OCLC 607078.
  7. ^ a b Trafton, Scott (2004). Egypt Land: Race and Nineteenth-Century American Egyptomania. Duke University Press. pp. 198, 298–299. OCLC 191855663. ISBN 978-0-8223-8631-5.
  8. ^ a b Pelling, Christopher (2011). Plutarch Caesar: Translated with an Introduction and Commentary. Oxford University Press. p. 385. OCLC 772240772. ISBN 978-0-19-814904-0.
  9. ^ a b c Whiting, George W. (1960). "The Cleopatra Rug Scene: Another Source." The Shaw Review, 3 (1): 15–17. January. (subscription required)
  10. ^ Riggs, Christina (2014). Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 113. OCLC 896712979. ISBN 978-0-19-150525-6.
  11. ^ a b Papet, Edoard; Laurence des Cars; Dominique de Font-Réaulx (2006). "The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904) 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine." Musée d'Orsay. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
  12. ^ a b Graves, Algernon (1905). The Royal Academy of Arts: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and their Work from its Foundation in 1769 to 1904. Volume 3. London: H. Graves and co., ltd. p. 226. OCLC 874275133.
  13. ^ Hering, Fanny Field (1892). Gérôme: The Life and Works of Jean Léon Gérôme. New York: Cassell Pub. Co. pp. 112–113. OCLC 229374.
  14. ^ Humbert, Jean-Marcel; Michael Pantazzi; Christiane Ziegler (1994). Egyptomania. National Gallery of Canada. pp. 574-575. OCLC 173515174. ISBN 978-0888846365.
  15. ^ Grafton, Anthony; Glenn W Most; Salvatore Settis (2010). The Classical Tradition. Harvard University Press. p. 207. OCLC 318876873. ISBN 978-0-674-03572-0.
  16. ^ Richards, Jeffrey (2008). Hollywood's Ancient Worlds. Continuum. p. 11. OCLC 676698591. ISBN 978-0-8264-3538-5.
  17. ^ a b Morcillo, Marta Garcia; Pauline Hanesworth (2015). Imagining Ancient Cities in Film: From Babylon to Cinecittà. Routledge. pp. 118, 176, 181. OCLC 904518109. ISBN 978-0-415-84397-3.
  18. ^ Ackerman, Gerald M. (2000). Jean-Leon Gerome. Monographie revisee et catalogue raisonne mis a jour. (Les Orientalistes, Vol. 4) French Revised Edition. Courbevoie. p. 258. OCLC 45243496. ISBN 978-2867701375.
  19. ^ "New York Top Art 2016-12-18 at the Wayback Machine". Yareah Magazine. April 24, 2014.

Further reading

  • Thoré, T. (1870). Salons de W. Bürger 1861 à 1868. Volume 2. Paris: Librairie de Ve Jules Renouard. pp. 294–295. OCLC 793564064

cleopatra, caesar, painting, cleopatra, caesar, french, cléopâtre, césar, also, known, cleopatra, before, caesar, canvas, painting, french, academic, artist, jean, léon, gérôme, completed, 1866, work, originally, commissioned, french, courtesan, païva, unhappy. Cleopatra and Caesar French Cleopatre et Cesar also known as Cleopatra Before Caesar is an oil on canvas painting by the French Academic artist Jean Leon Gerome completed in 1866 The work was originally commissioned by the French courtesan La Paiva but she was unhappy with the finished painting and returned it to Gerome It was exhibited at the Salon of 1866 and the Royal Academy of Arts in 1871 Cleopatra and CaesarArtistJean Leon GeromeYear1866MediumOil on canvasDimensions183 cm 129 5 cm 72 in 51 0 in LocationPrivate collectionGerome s painting is one of the earliest modern depictions of Cleopatra emerging from a carpet in the presence of Julius Caesar a minor historical inaccuracy that arose out of the translation of a scene from Plutarch s Life of Caesar and the semantic change of the word carpet over time The work is considered a classic example of Egyptomania and was mass produced by Goupil allowing it to reach a wide audience The painting was held by California banker Darius Ogden Mills and remained in the Mills family art collection for over a century until it was sold to a private collector in 1990 Contents 1 Background 2 Development 3 Completion and exhibition 4 Description 5 Critical reception 6 Historical inaccuracy 7 Influence 8 Provenance 9 Notes 10 References 11 Further readingBackground Edit Jean Leon Gerome 1886Jean Leon Gerome 1824 1904 was a nineteenth century French painter and sculptor 1 At the age of twenty three he came to the attention of the art world at the Salon of 1847 with The Cock Fight 1846 a Neo Grec painting that was praised by Theophile Gautier 2 With works informed by his frequent travels throughout the Middle East and visits to Egypt Gerome specialized in historical and Orientalist painting and became known as a leader of the Academic art movement 1 According to historian Charles Sowerwine Gerome painted erotic subjects with a photographic approach and sensual charge but avoided indecency by the use of Oriental and historical contexts To us Gerome s nudes seem pornographic but to contemporaries they were idealized by their removal from contemporary society and their insertion in the Oriental context 3 French writer Prosper Merimee first proposed the subject of Cleopatra and Caesar in a letter sent to Gerome in December 1860 4 5 La Paiva a wealthy French courtesan later commissioned the painting from Gerome intending it for display in the Hotel de la Paiva her mansion on the Champs Elysees According to American art critic Earl Shinn the work was originally painted on silk and was designed as a transparency to be lowered or raised midway of a long saloon in La Paiva s mansion which it was desirable to divide occasionally into two 6 Development Edit Pencil study in preparation for the paintingGerome made at least two previous oil paintings and a number of sketches in preparation for the work One shows Cleopatra lying on the ground stretching out to Julius Caesar with Apollodorus crouching behind her In one variation before the finished version Caesar is shown by himself with his hands on the desk instead of outstretched without his four secretaries When the work was finished in 1866 Cleopatra s position changed to show her standing before Caesar with Apollodorus bent down beside her 7 Gerome painted the scene based on the meeting between Cleopatra and Caesar written in the Life of Caesar by Greek historian Plutarch c AD 46 AD 120 more than a century after the incident took place 8 Even though Gerome visited Egypt in 1857 where George W Whiting of Rice University notes he acquired numerous abundant local color and exact detail that informed the painting of Cleopatra and Caesar 9 the Egyptian background setting in the work is derived from a plate in a volume from the Description de l Egypte 1809 29 that depicts a temple at Deir el Medina 10 Completion and exhibition EditLa Paiva disliked the finished painting she had commissioned and returned it to Gerome Ackerman notes that La Paiva felt the work was too expensive 4 Gerome modified the painting by adding canvas to the back for strength and it was subsequently purchased by his father in law Adolphe Goupil 1806 1893 of Goupil amp Cie the leading art dealership in nineteenth century France Gerome first met Goupil in 1859 and married his daughter Marie several years later 11 Cleopatra and Caesar was one of three works Gerome presented at the Salon of 1866 where it was exhibited with the title Cesar et Cleopatre 12 9 The painting appeared at the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition in 1871 under the longer name Cleopatre apportee a Cesar dans un tapis Cleopatra brought to Caesar in a carpet 12 13 Description Edit One of two alternate versionsThe painting depicts the year 47 BC when Cleopatra stands before Julius Caesar after Apollodorus her servant has just finished smuggling her into the palace inside a rug The figures are shown approximately half life size 4 Since the 1866 exhibition the work has become known by other titles such as Cleopatra Before Caesar and more recently Cleopatra and Caesar 7 14 Critical reception EditThe American Egyptomania project at George Mason University describes the painting as a classic example of Egyptomania containing sex slavery nudity and decadence 6 Lucy H Hooper called it a companion piece to Gerome s earlier work Phryne before the Areopagus 1861 1 The painting was one of two notable depictions of Cleopatra from the nineteenth century along with Cleopatra and the Peasant 1838 by Eugene Delacroix 15 Historical inaccuracy EditA translation of Plutarch s Life of Caesar by John Langhorne and his brother William published in 1770 was the first source to use the word carpet to describe the material used by Cleopatra s servant to sneak her into the palace Although the original meaning used by Plutarch was more akin to what is today known as a duffel bag at the time of Langhorne s translation a carpet meant a type of thick fabric not an actual rug But by the nineteenth century semantic change led to the word taking on a different meaning The legend of Cleopatra hiding in a rug although historically inaccurate became the most popular image with Gerome one of the first to popularize it in modern art 8 Influence Edit A Goupil illustration 1909 Gerome s professional relationship with art collector Adolphe Goupil allowed his paintings to become mass produced in the form of engravings and photographs reaching more people and impacting the wider culture throughout Britain and the United States 11 16 Over time both theatrical and Hollywood productions about Cleopatra looked to Gerome s painting for inspiration note 1 17 Whiting argues that Gerome s work may have influenced Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw s play Caesar and Cleopatra 1898 particularly the carpet scene in Act III 9 Many of Gerome s history paintings influenced the composition of cinematic scenes portraying ancient history 17 Provenance EditThe painting was bought by California banker philanthropist and New York real estate developer Darius Ogden Mills in the 1870s and remained in the Mills family art collection until it was sold to a private collector in 1990 18 19 Notes Edit Not just theatre and film but also art Dream of the Shulamite 1934 an oil on canvas by American painter R H Ives Gammell is said to show the influence of Gerome s Cleopatra and Caesar in both its idea and composition See Ackerman Gerald M and Elizabeth Ives Hunter 2001 Transcending Vision R H Ives Gammell 1893 1981 R H Ives Gammell Studios Trust p 104 OCLC 47012809 References Edit a b c Hooper Lucy H 1877 Leon Gerome The Art Journal 3 26 28 subscription required Musee d Orsay 2006 Jean Leon Gerome Young Greeks Attending a Cock Fight also called The Cock Fight Retrieved October 23 2015 Sowerwine Charles 2009 France Since 1870 Culture Society and the Making of the Republic Palgrave Macmillan pp 46 47 OCLC 226357013 ISBN 9781137013859 a b c Ackerman Gerald M 1986 The Life and Work of Jean Leon Gerome Sotheby s Publications p 218 OCLC 13422214 ISBN 978 0 85667 311 5 Bovet Alfred 1884 Lettres autographes composant la collection de m Alfred Bovet Paris Charavay Freres p 320 OCLC 83284990 a b Shinn Earl Edward Strahan 1881 Gerome A Collection of the Works of J L Gerome in One Hundred Photogravures Volume 10 Plate 6 Samuel L Hall OCLC 607078 a b Trafton Scott 2004 Egypt Land Race and Nineteenth Century American Egyptomania Duke University Press pp 198 298 299 OCLC 191855663 ISBN 978 0 8223 8631 5 a b Pelling Christopher 2011 Plutarch Caesar Translated with an Introduction and Commentary Oxford University Press p 385 OCLC 772240772 ISBN 978 0 19 814904 0 a b c Whiting George W 1960 The Cleopatra Rug Scene Another Source The Shaw Review 3 1 15 17 January subscription required Riggs Christina 2014 Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press p 113 OCLC 896712979 ISBN 978 0 19 150525 6 a b Papet Edoard Laurence des Cars Dominique de Font Reaulx 2006 The Spectacular Art of Jean Leon Gerome 1824 1904 Archived 2016 03 04 at the Wayback Machine Musee d Orsay Retrieved June 6 2015 a b Graves Algernon 1905 The Royal Academy of Arts A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and their Work from its Foundation in 1769 to 1904 Volume 3 London H Graves and co ltd p 226 OCLC 874275133 Hering Fanny Field 1892 Gerome The Life and Works of Jean Leon Gerome New York Cassell Pub Co pp 112 113 OCLC 229374 Humbert Jean Marcel Michael Pantazzi Christiane Ziegler 1994 Egyptomania National Gallery of Canada pp 574 575 OCLC 173515174 ISBN 978 0888846365 Grafton Anthony Glenn W Most Salvatore Settis 2010 The Classical Tradition Harvard University Press p 207 OCLC 318876873 ISBN 978 0 674 03572 0 Richards Jeffrey 2008 Hollywood s Ancient Worlds Continuum p 11 OCLC 676698591 ISBN 978 0 8264 3538 5 a b Morcillo Marta Garcia Pauline Hanesworth 2015 Imagining Ancient Cities in Film From Babylon to Cinecitta Routledge pp 118 176 181 OCLC 904518109 ISBN 978 0 415 84397 3 Ackerman Gerald M 2000 Jean Leon Gerome Monographie revisee et catalogue raisonne mis a jour Les Orientalistes Vol 4 French Revised Edition Courbevoie p 258 OCLC 45243496 ISBN 978 2867701375 New York Top Art Archived 2016 12 18 at the Wayback Machine Yareah Magazine April 24 2014 Further reading EditThore T 1870 Salons de W Burger 1861 a 1868 Volume 2 Paris Librairie de Ve Jules Renouard pp 294 295 OCLC 793564064 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cleopatra and Caesar painting amp oldid 1153654064, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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