| The Duel After the Masquerade | |
|---|---|
| French: Suites d'un bal masqué | |
 | |
| Artist | Jean-Léon Gérôme |
| Year | 1857–1859 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 39.1 cm × 56.3 cm (15.4 in × 22.2 in) |
| Location | Musée Condé, Chantilly |
The Duel After the Masquerade is a painting by the French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, currently housed in the Musée Condé in Chantilly, France.
Background
editJean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904) was born in Vesoul, France. In 1840 he became the student of Paul Delaroche, under whom he trained in the artistic disciplines of Academicism, and continued his training under Charles Gleyre when Gleyre took over Delaroche's atelier. In 1846 Gerome painted The Cock Fight, a genre painting with a neoclassical setting. He submitted it to the Salon of 1847 where it earned a third-place medal and generated considerable recognition for Gerome. Although The Cock Fight was criticized for flouting certain Academic conventions, it was sufficiently well-received to provide the impetus for the formation of the Neo-Grec movement among young French painters.[1]
Subject
editDuel marks the artist's departure from neoclassical settings.
It may have been inspired by a duel that took place after a masked ball in 1856 or -57. Thomas Couture rendered a different moment of the incident in his similarly named The Duel After the Masked Ball (1857).
Composition
editThe setting is a winter morning in the Bois de Boulogne,[a] trees bare and snow covering the ground. A man dressed as Pierrot has been mortally wounded in a sword duel and has collapsed into the arms of a Duc de Guise. A surgeon in a doge of Venice costume, tries to stop the flow of blood, while a Domino clutches his own head in horror.
The survivor of the duel, dressed as an American Indian, walks away with his second, Harlequin, leaving behind his weapon and some feathers of his headdress, towards his carriage, shown waiting in the background.
The bizarreness of the scene in regard to the brightly colored costumes turns to pathos at the sight of blood on the Pierrot.[2]
Legacy
editThe Duel After the Masked Ball was revealed at the Salon of 1857 where it was the most
The original became famous almost overnight with the critics of the Salon speculating about Gerome's sources for the incident depicted in the painting.[2] In a poll taken in the winter of 1909–1910, Baltimoreans were asked to identify their fifty-five favorite works of art and The Duel After the Masquerade topped the list.[3]: 183
It was among the best-recognized contemporary works of the second half of the 19th century, thanks in large part to its prolific reproduction by Adolphe Goupil.
Replicas
edit
Gerome painted two copies of Duel. One was obtained in 1859 by American businessman William Thompson Walters, who purchased it for $2,500 at a Gambart exhibition at the National Academy of Design in New York.[3]: 17 It was not unusual for artists to replicate their own paintings and other versions had also been painted for Prince Alexander of Russia and for the Ali Pacha. Walters asked the manager of the exhibition at the National Academy of Design for a letter of authentication from Gérôme and a comparison of the work he had purchased to the original.[3]: 241
In each succeeding version, the attitude of the Indian-costumed participant's head is altered slightly to emphasize that he, not Harlequin, is the duellist.[4]: 319
Exhibition history
editThe Walters indicates that the work has been included in the following exhibitions:[5]
- From Ingres to Gauguin: French Nineteenth Century Paintings Owned in Maryland. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore. 1951.
- The Taste of Maryland: Art Collecting in Maryland 1800–1934. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1984.
- Highlights from the Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1998–2001.
- Triumph of French Painting: Masterpieces from Ingres to Matisse. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton. 2000–2002.
- A Magnificent Age: Masterpieces from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2002–2004.
- Déjà Vu? Revealing Repetition in French Masterpieces. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix. 2007–2008.[6]
- The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Musee D'Orsay, Paris; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. 2010–2011.[7]
- From Rye to Raphael: The Walters Story. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2014–2016.
Notes
edit- ^ The Bois de Boulogne, on the outskirts of Paris, was often the designated site of duels
References
edit- ^ "The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904)". Musee d'Orsay. Retrieved 2017-05-05.
- ^ a b Ackerman, Gerald M. (2008). Jean-Léon Gérôme: His Life, His Work (English ed.). Paris: ACR Editions. pp. 49–50. ISBN 2867701015.
- ^ a b c Johnston, William R. (1999). William and Henry Walters: the Reticent Collectors. Baltimore, Md. [u.a.]: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press. ISBN 0801860407.
- ^ Parsons, Coleman O. (June 1959). "The Wintry Duel: A Victorian Import". Victorian Studies. 2 (4): 317–324. JSTOR 3825755.
- ^ "The Duel After the Masquerade". The Walters Art Museum. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
- ^ Mainardi, Patricia (Spring 2008). "Déjà Vu? Revealing Repetition in French Masterpieces". Reviews. Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide. 7 (1). Retrieved 3 May 2017.
- ^ Weisberg, Gabriel P. (Autumn 2010). "The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904)". Reviews. Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide. 9 (2). Retrieved 3 May 2017.
| Paintings |
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| Sculptures | ||
| Related | ||
Category:1850s paintings
Category:Collection of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
Category:French paintings
Category:Paintings by Jean-Léon Gérôme