4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2010.

Orestes Pursued by the Furies

Artist Adolphe-William Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905)

CultureFrench

Date1862

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions91 x 109 5/8 in. (231.1 x 278.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 101 7/8 x 121 1/4 x 4 in. (258.8 x 308 x 10.2 cm)

InscribedSigned : "W-BOVGVEREAV-1862"

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.623

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 216

DescriptionThis is a large oil on canvas painting. There are five figures clustered in the center, leaving the dark landscape background largely unnoticed. A thorny vine creeps across their path in the right foreground. The one male, nude, holding his hands over his ears with an expression of pain on his face, is swarthy and surrounded by four females in various tints of pale. Three of the females, hair swarming with snakes, are the furies: Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megaera point at his crime, as he covers his ears and tries to escape. The female to his left, his mother, has a knife buried deep in her chest. Her head is tilted back and she is supported by one of the furies. The mother's hair hangs down long past her waist, blood drips on her creamy white skin and garments. Her lower body is draped in a swirling red cloth. The three furies have an eerie cast to their skin, and their faces are distorted in anger. The one on the right side of the canvas holds a torch in her left hand, but the flames are subdued in comparison to the red garment draped about the murdered woman. Orestes, the one male in the painting, murdered her for killing his father.

Label TextAdolphe William Bouguereau French, 1825–1905 Orestes Pursued by the Furies, 1862 Oil on canvas In this scene from an ancient Greek tragedy, Orestes avenges his father by murdering his own mother. Even before her body hits the ground, the mythological spirits of vengeance known as the Furies have overwhelmed the guilty son. By pitting Orestes’ nude body against the hideous trio swarming around him, William Bouguereau set the bar for late 19th-century academic painters. His use of classical figures to animate strikingly dramatic scenes won him both commercial success and critical recognition as the grand master of the French art establishment. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.623 ProvenanceThe artist, 1862-1870. Sold by the artist to George Lucas on behalf of Samuel Putnam Avery, NY, Nov. 4, 1870. Sold by Avery to Joseph Harrison Jr., from Philadelphia, PA, unknown year. Upon Harrison's death in 1874, transferred to his wife, Sarah Poulterer Harrison. Donated by Sarah Harrison to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1878. Purchased by Giovanni Castano, Boston, MA, unknown year. Sold to Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., May 28, 1953. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., to the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, 1971. Exhibition HistorySalon, Paris, 1863. (Exhib. cat. no. 227). "William Bouguereau," Paris, 1885. (Exhib. cat. page 24). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy, 1892. (Exhib. cat. no. 401). "William Bouguereau," Paris, 1900. (Exhib. cat. page 147, by M. Vachon). "The Pennsylvania Academy," Boston, 1911. (Exhib. cat. page 164, ill., by H.W. Henderson). "French Painting 1789-1929 from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Dayton Art Institute, March 25 - May 22, 1960. (Exhib. cat. no. 43). "French Salon Paintings from Southern Collections," High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Chrysler Museum, Norfolk; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Jan. 21 - Oct. 23, 1983. (Exhib. cat. no. 6). "William Bouguereau 1825 - 1905," Petit Palais, Paris, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Feb. 9, 1984 - Jan. 13, 1985. (Exhib. cat. no. 29). "French Paintings from The Chrysler Museum", North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, May 31 - September 14, 1986; Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, November 6, 1986 - January 18, 1987. (Exhib. cat. no. 22). "Vik Muniz: Photography and the Rebirth of Wonder," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, July 13 - October 14, 2018. "Bouguereau and America," Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, February 15 – May 12, 2019.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.No.43. Mario Amaya. "Contrasts and Comparisons in French Nineteenth Century Painting." _Apollo_. 107: 194. 04/1978:pp. 16-25, ill. John House. "Pompier Politics: Bouguereau's Art." _Art in America_. 10/1984:pp. 142-143 and cover illustration. Louise d'Argencourt, Mark Steven Walker, et al. _William Bouguereau 1825-1905_. Montréal: Le Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montreal. 1984. pp. 161-163. Jefferson C. Harrison. "Nineteenth-Century French Art - Part I." _The Chrysler Museum Gallery Guide_. Norfolk, VA: Chrysler Museum. 1985:p. 5, no. 12, illustrated. Jefferson C. Harrison. _French Paintings from the Chrysler Museum_. Norfolk, VA: The Chrysler Museum, 1986, Cat. No. 22, pp. 44-46; Color Plate No. 22, p. 116. Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. Norfolk, VA: The Chrysler Museum, 1991, No. 87, pp. 110-111; Color ill. p. 111. Juliet Wilson-Bareau, et al. _Manet: The Execution of Maximilian. Paintings Politics and Censorship_. London: National Gallery Publications Limited. 1992:pp. 90-91, fig. 98. Pascal Quignard. _La Haine de la Musique_. Paris: Gallimard, 1996, color detail on cover. Fronia E. Wissman, _Bouguereau_ (San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1996), 103, plate 50. Daniel Stissi, Jean-Bernard Allardi, Marcel Arnaud, Josiane Bidault, Brigitte Rebmeister, and Fabienne Serin-Moyal. _Francais 2_. Paris: Delagrave. 2000: 149-150, illustrations. Matt Matravers. _Justice and Punishment: The Rationale of Coercion_. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2000: Jacket cover illustration. Content does not apply. Luc Mallet, "Aimer à la folie," _Cerveau & Psycho_ no. 2 (June-August 2003): 53. Jo Claes, _Griekse Mythen en Sagen_ (Kampen: Uitgeverij Ten Have, 2005), 258 & 259. ISBN: 9789080829091 Edited by James F. Peck, _In the Studios of Paris: William Bouguereau & His American Students_, exh. cat., The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK., 2006, 19 & 20. ISBN: 978-0-300-11413-3 Jeffrey Miller, "Canada's Law and Literature Movement Gains Momentum," _The Lawyers Weekly_ Vol. 25, No. 44. (March 31, 2006), 5. Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 42, fig. 38. Tomas Lappalainen, "En historia av hämnd ock blod," Axess Magazine Volume 4 (May, 2008), 21 Translated by Johann Gustav Droysen, _Aischylos, Tragödien_ (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 2008) Cover. Robin Waterfield, trans., _Euripides: Orestes and Other Plays_ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), cover. Robert Badinter, _Crime & châtiment: Sous la Direction de Jean Clair_, exh.cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France, 2010, 16, ill.3. Claude Quétel, _Images de la folie_, (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2010), 156. _The Complete Greek Tragedies_, Volume 1, (London: The Folio Society Ltd, 2011), 145. Joachim Nagel, _Vampire: Mythische Wesen der Nacht_, (Stuttgart: Belser Publishing, 2011), 8,12, back cover ill. Chris Murray, _Tragic Coleridge_ (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2013) cover ill. Laurel Fulkerson, _No Regrets: Remorse in Classical Antiquity_ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) cover ill. Sir Basil Markesinis, _On the Endurance of Ancient Greek Thought Through the Ages_ (Vienna: Jan Sramek Verlag, 2014) 42-43. Patrick Wald Lasowski, _La Terreur_ (Paris: Le Cherche Midi, 2014) dust jacket ill. Richard Sorabji, _Moral Conscience Through the Ages: Fifth Century BCE to the Present_ (Chicago and Oxford: University of Chicago Press and Oxford University Press, 2014) dust jacket ill. Benjamin Steiner, "Nebenfolgen in der Geschichte: Eine historische Soziologie reflexiver Modernisierung," Historische Zeitschrift 65 (2014) cover ill. Eric M. Zafran, "Norfolk's Salon Masterworks Shine Again," _Fine Art Connoisseur_, November-December 2014, 47. Guy Cogeval, et. al., _El canto del cisne: Pinturas académicas del Salón de París, colecciones Musée d'Orsay_ (Madrid: Fundación Mapfre, 2015) 44, fig. 13. 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Milwaukee Art Museum and Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, _Bouguereau & America_, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019), plate 9, pages 88-91. John C. Tibbetts, _The Furies of Marjorie Bowen_ (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2019) cover ill. Yuki Nakamura, _We are Shakespeare's Contemporaries: Films Representing Renaissance Mentality of Modern People_ (2024) 86, fig. 3-1.