Le bain de Flore

Details

Follower of Pierre Paul Prud'hon
Le bain de Flore
oil on canvas
51 x 38¼ in. (129.5 x 97 cm.)

Provenance

(Probably) with Duclos, by 1876.
Vincent-Claude Laurent-Richard; sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 28-29 May 1886, lot 38, from where purchased by
Eugène Féral.
Edouard Latil; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 14 December 1931, lot 32, as 'School of Prud'hon'.
Sabatier d'Espeyran, Montpellier.

Literature

E. de Goncourt, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, dessiné et gravé de P.P. Prud'hon, Paris, 1876, p. 101, note 1, as 'a doubtful copy'.
J. Guiffrey, L'Oeuvre de P.-P. Prud'hon, Paris, 1924, p. 66, under no. 178, as 'attributed to Prud'hon'.
P. Rosenberg, et al., French Paintings 1500-1825: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, 1987, pp. 257-9, as an 'unfinished variant' related to versions at the Louvre and the De Young Museums.
S. Laveissière, Prud'hon ou le rêve de bonheur, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1997, p. 250, note 1, under no. 180, as 'seems not to have been painted by Prud'hon'.

Exhibited

Paris, École des Beaux-Arts, Exposition des oeuvres de Prud'hon, May 1874, p. 149, no. 511.

Special Notice

This lot is offered without reserve.

Brought to you by

Alexandra Nicholls

Check the condition report or get in touch for additional information about this

ANicholls@christies.com 212-636-2126

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

The present painting relates to Prud'hon's unfinished Venus at the bath (Louvre, Paris), and was until recently known to scholars only through Gigoux's engraving. That in turn must have been based on a now-lost drawing, as it exhibits minor differences in both the figures and landscape. A study in black and white chalk on blue paper for the figure of the nude woman is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

More from Old Masters and 19th Century Art

View All