Jules-antoine Lecomte Du Noüy - 1842 1923

Splendid and very daring study by Lecomte du Noüy probably intended for one of the many official commissions of the French and Romanian state -

Naturalistic rendering, pronounced taste for narration, the subject - Opalescent flesh, dark and sensual vision of bodies - Troubling eroticism are the main characteristics of this extraordinary painter -

"It is Ingres making Gerome" will say of his work a critic -

Many institutions around the world keep the works of this orientalist painter -

Orsay Museum - Art Museum and History of Judaism, Paris - Cleveland Museum of Art- Musée de Grenoble - Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lille - Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes - Dahesh Museum of Art, New York - Musée national des chateaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau, Reuil-Malmaison - Lambinet Museum, Versailles - Departmental Museum of Oise, Beauvais.

As often I prefer the apparent unfinished, the study to the final work - For Lecomte Du Noüy it is flagrant, these large historical compositions bore me while these many small studies of hands, feet, or profiles remain extraordinary by their tight framing, the chiaroscuro, the outrageous lights - They were also on the return from his many journeys in the East , cleverly listed for monumental orders -

One of them in the same format as ours, from the collection of Prince Beauvau de Craon was sold at Sothebys for € 22,000 (see photos attached) - Sale of the Pierre Bergé Collection in 2018 : The door of the seraglio, memory of Cairo by Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Noüy who beats the world record for € 2,409,000 for the artist -

Descendant of a noble family from Piedmont settled in France in the 14th century, Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ was born in Paris in 1842 and died there in 1923 -
he joined the studio of Jean Léon Gérome who made him his favorite pupil.

1872 he won the second Grand Prix de Rome - 1876 the Legion of Honor - Gold medalist at the Universal Exhibition -

Exhibited all his life in the major Parisian salons. Complete artist, Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ is a painter and sculptor. From his many travels in the East, he brought back sketchbooks and was quickly considered as a painter of history above all orientalist. He was official painter of the Court of Romania. Travels to Egypt, and then Greece, Turkey and Romania. From then on he alternated religious subjects and orientalist paintings.

On the back of the chassis the stamp of the Lecomte Du Noüy estate, Toulouse sale of 22 06 1999 - Perfect Condition -