Marie Petiet - Allegory Of The Arts - Still Life With Diane De Houdon - 1876 - Oil On Canvas

The exercise of still life is very rare in the career of Marie Petiet, our painting even seeming to be her only work belonging to this genre. The skilful composition, the skilful play of light pay homage to Dutch and French artists of the 17th century, and the beautiful draping of the Persian rug over an entablature could even be considered a quotation or a variation on a classical theme. The gilded bronze figure confirms Marie Petiet's homage to the artists of the past, of whom she claims to be the heiress. The artist chose to highlight a reduction of Diana the Huntress by Houdon, this masterpiece created in 1776, one of the original casts of which she had been able to admire at the Louvre Museum. These statuettes had been popularized at the time of Marie Petiet by the fonts of Ferdinand Barbedienne and populated artist's studios. The choice of the goddess is undoubtedly not insignificant for the native of Limoux who at the dawn of her career wanted to assert her dual status of artist and woman. So our painting, far from representing a simple heap of objects, looks like an allegory of the arts. The stringed instrument of course evokes music, the colorful palette refers to painting, sculpture occupies a central place... Writing and reading, symbols of instruction, erudition and emancipation, complete the together and give this work by an artist at the dawn of her career the force of a manifesto. Noticed at the Salon of 1877, where our painting was exhibited in Toulouse under number 226, our painting was cited by the art critic Théophile Véron as "one of the artist's most striking works". (fig 1 / photo 4)