Saint Mary of Egypt
Artist
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
(French, 1725-1805)
CultureFrench
Date1800
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions71 1/2 x 57 1/4 in. (181.6 x 145.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 88 x 74 in. (223.5 x 188 cm)
Overall, Frame: 88 x 74 in. (223.5 x 188 cm)
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.652
Collections
Not on view
DescriptionThis oil on canvas painting features Mary of Egypt, slumped over in a desert cave. She reads, repenting her sins while holding a cross to her chest. A lion, looking as sorrowful as she, attends her.Label TextJean-Baptiste Greuze French, 1725–1805 Saint Mary of Egypt, 1800 Oil on canvas Jean-Baptiste Greuze devoted one of his largest canvases to this grand depiction of the early Christian Saint Mary, naked and repentant in her desert cave. It is also his last major commission, painted by the 75-year-old artist for Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother Lucien. Once famed for his scenes of everyday French life, Greuze was now penniless and alone. “I have lost everything but talent and courage,” he wrote. The sorrowing Mary and equally mournful lion—a saintly attribute that, according to legend, helped dig her grave—may mirror the anguish of Greuze’s own final years. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.652 ProvenanceLucien Bonaparte, Prince de Canino, Paris, 1800; Bonaparte sale, London, May 14-16, 1816; T...and L...sale, Paris, March 20 -21, 1840; Durand-Duclos sale, Paris, Feb. 18, 1847; Prousteau de Montlouis, Paris; de Montlouis sale, Paris, May 5 - 6, 1851; Marquis de Maison, Paris; Marquis de Maison sales, Paris, June 10 - 12, 1869 and Paris, Feb. 24, 1896; Durand-Ruel et Cie., Paris; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 1954; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, 1971. Exhibition HistorySalon, Paris, 1801. (Exhib. cat. no. 158). Salon, Paris, 1804. (Exhib. cat. no. 219). "French Painting 1789-1929 from the Colleciton of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Dayton Art Institute, March 25 - May 22, 1960. (Exhib. cat. no. 2). "Jean-Baptiste Greuze 1725-1805," Wadsworth Atheneum, Connecticut, Nov. 30 - Jan. 23, 1977; California Palace of Legion of Honor, March 5 - May 1, 1977; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, Mid-June - Mid-August, 1977. "French Paintings from The Chrysler Museum," North Carolina Museum of Art, May 31, 1986; Birmingham Museum of Art, Nov. 6, 1986 - Jan. 18, 1987. (Exhib. cat. no. 15). "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. Published ReferencesPriscilla C. Colt and Charles H. Elam. _French Paintings 1789-1929 from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._. Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio. 1960. #15. Anita Brookner. _Greuze: The Rise and Fall of an Eighteenth-Century Phenomenon_. Greenwich, Conn., New York, Graphic Society. 1972: 133. _Jean-Baptiste Greuze 1725-1805_, exhibition catalog, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; and Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, 1976-1977, no. 113. R. Rosenblum. "The Greuze Exhibition at Hartford and elsewhere," _Burlington Magazine_. 119. London: Burlington Magazine. 1977:149, fig. 108. Mario Amaya. "Contrasts and Comparisons in French Nineteenth Century Painting," _Apollo_. 107: 194. 04/1978: 16-25, ill. Jean H. Hagstrum. _Sex and Sensibility, Ideal and Erotic Love from Milton to Mozart_. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press. 1980: 312, ill. no. 25. Jefferson C. Harrison. _French Paintings from the Chrysler Museum_. The Chrysler Museum. 1986. No. 15. *See for further references. Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum. 1991. #63, 83. Edited by Philip Conisbee, _French Genre Painting in the Eighteenth Century_ (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2007), 144 & 145 plate 15. ISBN: 978-0300120240 _1775-1840 Lucien Bonaparte: Un Homme Libre_, exh. cat., Palais Fesch - musée des Beaux Arts, Ajaccio, Corsica, France, 2010, 242. Antoine Chatelain. Greuze. l'enfance e la famille. Galerie Eric Coatalem, Paris, 2027.138
Pair/Pair
