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Lot Essay
Alexandre Cabanel painted Ruth revenant des Champs for Eugénie, the Empress of France, in 1868 at the height of his international success as history painter, portraitist to Second Empire France, and powerful Academic official. His strong, introspective figure of Ruth, resting from gleaning, breaks sharply from traditional imagery of the humble Old Testament heroine and suggests that the Empress herself may have had a hand in defining the artist's subject. Ruth revenant des Champs went directly to Empress Eugénie's apartments in the Tuileries Palace after its completion, without the typical Salon exhbition exposure, and since its sale from Euginie's estate in 1927, the painting has been lost to the public record. Its reappearance today significantly expands our knowledge of Cabanel's work.
Cabanel's prominence in Paris during the 1860s has never been doubted, for he won virtualy every award the French art establishment could offer, he had a large and influential teaching studio, and he painted portraits or commissions for virtually every head of state in Europe (fig.1). But over time his repution has faltered from the loss of several of his most important decorative commisions in the destruction of both the Tuileries Palace and the Paris Hôtel de Ville during the Commune in 1871; and from the irony of being too closely associated with a single one of his works, the life size nude The Birth of Venus which was shown at the Salon of 1863 and acquired by the Emperor, Napoléon III (Paris, Musée d'Orsay). With Venus languidly floating in on a wave, acompanied by a flight of putti, Cabanel's painting has fallen victim to too-facile comparisons with the contemporary nude Olympia by Edouard Manet and to the gossip that surrounded the Emperor's many indiscretions. The rediscovery of Ruth revenant des Champs, with its beautiful preservation revealing the power of Cabanel's draughtsmanship and his originality as a colorist, offers an important new argument for Cabanel's contemporary prominence.
The story of Ruth gleaning in the fields of Boaz comes from the Book of Ruth, and tells of a young Moabite woman who married into another tribe and went to live with her husband's family. Her widowed mother-in-law Naomi lived with them, and when the young Ruth was suddenly widowed in turn, the two women were left on their own. By law and by custom, Ruth was entitled to return to her own family and seek remarriage. but she loyally took on the responsibility of supporting her mother-in-law. Returning with Naomi to Bethlehem, the older woman's homeland, Ruth could only provide for them both by gleaning in the field of a wealthy relative - that is, by following the harvesters to gather up any grain that fell from their sheaves. Ruth's efforts were noticed by the landowner, the elderly Boaz, who invited her to join his harvesters; and when he learned of her loyalty and tireless work, he took her for his bride. The union of Ruth and Boaz commands an entire Biblical book because it begot Obed and began the 'Tree of Jesse,' the lineage of Christ. The appeal of Ruth's story in its own right and its application to traditional scenes of harvesting has made the tale a popular subject for painters. Earlier images of Ruth usually stress her humility and loyalty, and generally depict the young woman kneeling or bowing to the elderly Boaz. Cabanel daringly isolated the Moabite widow, presenting her dominating the harvest behind her and with no Boaz in sight. Her thoughtful self-absorption suggests awareness of the weighty future ahead of her and her command of her picture space presents Ruth as unquestionably the mistress of her own fate.
Eugenia de Montijo was a beautiful but impoverished Spanish heiress who married Napoléon III in 1853, shortly after his coup-d'état had elevated him from an elected president of France to a new Emperor, with grand ambitions to revive the values and goals of his uncle, Napoléon, and to restore the prestige of France after a half century of disputed regimes (fig. 2). Eugénie (as she restyled herself on her marriage) was the daughter of a Spaniard who had joined the forces of Napoléon I as the Emperor led his armies through Europe and who remained loyal to the Bonapartist cause long after his hero's fall. He raised his daughter with nostalgia for the liberal myths of Napoleon's empire, and her mother raised her with great ambitions. Euginie lost her first love to her elder sister, and when Napoléon III proposed, Eugénie readily accepted, despite the eighteen-year age difference and Napoléon's reputation as a philanderer. Eugénie genuinely shared the Emperor's goals for his Empire, and committed herself to sustaining the regime and to establishing a dynasty. Much of her French constituency found her Spanish birth impossible to forgive, and her long reign as Empress was as difficult as it was spectacular. It is not improbable to see something of Eugénie's self-image in Cabanel's Ruth; whether she herself requested his powerful treatment of the heroine, or whether he was perspicacious enough to realize how to flatter the Empress with allusions to her own role is not known; but Ruth revenant des Champs is certainly one of the artist's strongest, most Michaelangelesque women.
When the Second Empire collapsed, in the wake of the Emperor's capture at Sédan during the early days of the disatrous Franco-Prussian War in the summer of 1870, Eugénie fled into exile in England. Living first at Chislehurst, then at Farnborough Hill, Eugénie continued to nourish hopes of a Bonapartist return to France, first through the restoration of her husband, and then later in her unrealized hopes for her son. During the 1880s, the French state returned to Euginie much of the personal property and collections she had left in France, and the Cabanel Ruth revant des Champs was in her home at Farnborough Hill at her death in 1920 (fig. 3).
(fig. 1) Alexander Cabanel in his studio.
(fig. 2) Franz Xavier Winterhalter, Portrait of Empress Eugénie.
(fig. 3) Cover of the 1927 Christie's catalogue featuring Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Eugénie's collection, in which Ruth was sold.
Bill of sale for Ruth, from Galerie J. Allard to Carlos Madariaga, dated 4 October 1927.
Cabanel's prominence in Paris during the 1860s has never been doubted, for he won virtualy every award the French art establishment could offer, he had a large and influential teaching studio, and he painted portraits or commissions for virtually every head of state in Europe (fig.1). But over time his repution has faltered from the loss of several of his most important decorative commisions in the destruction of both the Tuileries Palace and the Paris Hôtel de Ville during the Commune in 1871; and from the irony of being too closely associated with a single one of his works, the life size nude The Birth of Venus which was shown at the Salon of 1863 and acquired by the Emperor, Napoléon III (Paris, Musée d'Orsay). With Venus languidly floating in on a wave, acompanied by a flight of putti, Cabanel's painting has fallen victim to too-facile comparisons with the contemporary nude Olympia by Edouard Manet and to the gossip that surrounded the Emperor's many indiscretions. The rediscovery of Ruth revenant des Champs, with its beautiful preservation revealing the power of Cabanel's draughtsmanship and his originality as a colorist, offers an important new argument for Cabanel's contemporary prominence.
The story of Ruth gleaning in the fields of Boaz comes from the Book of Ruth, and tells of a young Moabite woman who married into another tribe and went to live with her husband's family. Her widowed mother-in-law Naomi lived with them, and when the young Ruth was suddenly widowed in turn, the two women were left on their own. By law and by custom, Ruth was entitled to return to her own family and seek remarriage. but she loyally took on the responsibility of supporting her mother-in-law. Returning with Naomi to Bethlehem, the older woman's homeland, Ruth could only provide for them both by gleaning in the field of a wealthy relative - that is, by following the harvesters to gather up any grain that fell from their sheaves. Ruth's efforts were noticed by the landowner, the elderly Boaz, who invited her to join his harvesters; and when he learned of her loyalty and tireless work, he took her for his bride. The union of Ruth and Boaz commands an entire Biblical book because it begot Obed and began the 'Tree of Jesse,' the lineage of Christ. The appeal of Ruth's story in its own right and its application to traditional scenes of harvesting has made the tale a popular subject for painters. Earlier images of Ruth usually stress her humility and loyalty, and generally depict the young woman kneeling or bowing to the elderly Boaz. Cabanel daringly isolated the Moabite widow, presenting her dominating the harvest behind her and with no Boaz in sight. Her thoughtful self-absorption suggests awareness of the weighty future ahead of her and her command of her picture space presents Ruth as unquestionably the mistress of her own fate.
Eugenia de Montijo was a beautiful but impoverished Spanish heiress who married Napoléon III in 1853, shortly after his coup-d'état had elevated him from an elected president of France to a new Emperor, with grand ambitions to revive the values and goals of his uncle, Napoléon, and to restore the prestige of France after a half century of disputed regimes (fig. 2). Eugénie (as she restyled herself on her marriage) was the daughter of a Spaniard who had joined the forces of Napoléon I as the Emperor led his armies through Europe and who remained loyal to the Bonapartist cause long after his hero's fall. He raised his daughter with nostalgia for the liberal myths of Napoleon's empire, and her mother raised her with great ambitions. Euginie lost her first love to her elder sister, and when Napoléon III proposed, Eugénie readily accepted, despite the eighteen-year age difference and Napoléon's reputation as a philanderer. Eugénie genuinely shared the Emperor's goals for his Empire, and committed herself to sustaining the regime and to establishing a dynasty. Much of her French constituency found her Spanish birth impossible to forgive, and her long reign as Empress was as difficult as it was spectacular. It is not improbable to see something of Eugénie's self-image in Cabanel's Ruth; whether she herself requested his powerful treatment of the heroine, or whether he was perspicacious enough to realize how to flatter the Empress with allusions to her own role is not known; but Ruth revenant des Champs is certainly one of the artist's strongest, most Michaelangelesque women.
When the Second Empire collapsed, in the wake of the Emperor's capture at Sédan during the early days of the disatrous Franco-Prussian War in the summer of 1870, Eugénie fled into exile in England. Living first at Chislehurst, then at Farnborough Hill, Eugénie continued to nourish hopes of a Bonapartist return to France, first through the restoration of her husband, and then later in her unrealized hopes for her son. During the 1880s, the French state returned to Euginie much of the personal property and collections she had left in France, and the Cabanel Ruth revant des Champs was in her home at Farnborough Hill at her death in 1920 (fig. 3).
(fig. 1) Alexander Cabanel in his studio.
(fig. 2) Franz Xavier Winterhalter, Portrait of Empress Eugénie.
(fig. 3) Cover of the 1927 Christie's catalogue featuring Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Eugénie's collection, in which Ruth was sold.
Bill of sale for Ruth, from Galerie J. Allard to Carlos Madariaga, dated 4 October 1927.