Lot n° 22
Estimation :
800 - 1200
EUR
Suiveur d'Eugène DELACROIX (1798-1863)
Arabian saddling his horse
Oil on canvas 47.5 x 58.5 cm.
Our painting is an exact copy of the composition by Delacroix, dated 1857, now in the Szépmüvészeti Mùseum in Budapest.
The artist, who was living in Champrosay at the time, noted the development of this painting three times in his Diary. Firstly, between 17 and 26 May 1856: "I have also sketched [...] a small subject: a horse at large that its master is about to saddle and that is playing with a dog". Then, on 5 July: "Worked on the Arab who is going to saddle his horse", then, after a walk "On my way back to my sketch with success (the horse's head) and took a nap until five o'clock". Finally, on 23 October: "All day long I have been uncomfortable: I am still working on the Arab who is saddling his horse".
This painting was reported by Robaut as sold at auction on 17 March 1859, for 660 francs, and was then mentioned, from 1873 to 1885, in the collection of Charles Soultzener (1811-1880), a great Delacroix lover. It then passed to Anthony Roux, also an eminent collector. When it was sold in 1914, the Bernheim-Jeune gallery acquired the work for 38,000 francs, and gave it almost immediately to the Budapest museum.
Our painting was made on a canvas sold to Mme Pottin's paper mill, located in Nantes, rue Santeuil, since at least 1845, and which, at the latest in 1894, changed its name to "Papeterie Pottin - Georges Meynieu", under the control of the new owner Georges Meynieu (1848-1923). This would place the making of our copy between 1845 and 1894.
"The Arab who carries the saddle to his horse", apart from its two presentations at public sales in 1859 and 1914, was only shown to the French public once, in 1885, at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, between 6 March and 15 April 1885. Was this copy made on that occasion? Or was it a commission from M. Soultzener or M. Roux, who owned the painting for a time?
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