Sleeping Bacchus
Framed: 20 1/4 × 23 15/16 inches (51.44 × 60.8 cm)
- 125
Gemälde und Zeichnungen: Neuerwerbungen, Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, Munich, summer 1977, no. 13, as Schlaftrunkener Bacchus mit Gefolge.
The Classical Ideal: Athens to Picasso , David Carritt Limited, London, November 15–December 14, 1979, no. 22, as Sleeping Bacchus.
Selected 19th Century Paintings and Works on Paper, Artemis Fine Arts, Inc., New York, October 20–November 28, 1997, no. 1, as Sleeping Bacchus.
In this painting, Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson, known as Girodet, depicted the aftermath of a wild party celebrating Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Bacchus and members of his entourage are shown sleeping off the effects of wine, while a satyr chases a nymph in the background. Drawing inspiration from classical antiquity, Girodet chose a mythological subject and included nude figures. However, he painted this scene with the vibrant yet moody colors common to Romanticism.
The artist, until December 9, 1824;
Purchased at his posthumous sale, Tableaux,
Esquisses, Dessins et Croquis, de M. Girodet-Trioson, peintre d’histoire,
membre de l’Institut, officier de la Légion-d’honneur, chevalier de l’ordre de
Saint-Michel; De divers ouvrages faits dans son école, De Tableaux, Dessins des
trois Écoles, anciens et modernes; Estampes, Recueils, Ouvrages sur les Arts,
Lythographies; Médailles et Objets divers d’Antiquité; Armures de tous les
pays; Meubles rares, etc., etc., composant son Cabinet; de Figures, Bustes et
Fragments divers, moulés en plâtre sur l’Antique; riches Costumes, Peaux
d’Animaux, Mannequins, Chevalets, Boîtes à couleur, et objets divers, composant
le mobilier de son Atelier, etc., etc. , chez Pérignon, rue
Neuve-Saint-Augustin, no. 55, Paris, April 11, 1825, lot 63, by Alexis Nicolas
Pérignon the Younger (1785–1864), Paris, 1825–September 10, 1864;
His posthumous sale, Tableaux et
des Dessins Provenant de la Collection de Mr. A.-N. Pérignon père, Ancien
Commissaire-Expert des Musées Royaux, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 17–20, 1865,
lot 40, as Le Berger endormi, 1865;
Probably a private collection,
London, by January 1957 [1];
With Etude Couturier-Nicolay, Paris,
by June 2, 1972;
Purchased from their sale, Dessins,
Aquarelles et Tableaux Modernes, Dessins et Tableaux Anciens, Objets d’Art,
Meubles et Sièges, Tapisseries, Tapis d’Orient et d’Aubusson , Palais
Galliéra, Paris, June 2, 1972, lot 92, as Bacchus endormi;
With David Carritt Ltd., Artemis
Group, London, by summer 1977–at least December 14, 1979 [2];
With E. V. Thaw and Co., New York;
Private collection, United States;
Purchased at the sale, Fine Old
Master Pictures: The Properties of the Lady Anne Bentinck (removed from Welbeck
Abbey); the late Theodore Besterman; P. Haigh, Esq.; the Vicar and
Churchwardens of Hartland Parish, North Devon; the Late the 4th Lord Leigh
(sold by order of the Executors); R.E.D. Shafto, Esq.; Sir Sacheverell Sitwell,
Bt., and from various sources , Christie’s, London, December 17, 1981, no.
121, as Bacchus asleep;
With Artemis Fine Arts Inc., New
York, by October 20–December 15, 1997;
Purchased from Artemis Fine Arts
Group by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1997.
NOTES
[1] Per Flora Allen of Christie’s, a
painting with the Christie’s inventory number GK598, the same as on the back of
the painting, was brought into the auction house for advice in January 1957.
However, the painting was not put up for sale through Christie’s and they did
not make note of the artist, subject, or current owner. See email from Flora
Allen, Old Master Paintings, Christie’s, to Ann Friedman, NAMA, January 23,
2020, NAMA curatorial files.
[2] See Chiara Savettieri, “‘Il
avait retrouvé le secret de Pygmalion’: Girodet, Canova e l’illusione della
vita,” Studiolo 2 (2003): 36n36, which asserts that the painting’s owner
after the Palais Galliera sale in 1972 was a Munich-based dealer. That is
likely a reference to Arnoldi-Livie, who had it on consignment from David
Carritt from summer 1977 to fall 1979. See email from Lea Peyruse-Boroffka,
Galerie Arnoldi-Livie to Ann Friedman, NAMA, November 21, 1979, NAMA curatorial
files.
[Alexis Nicolas] Pérignon, Catalogue des Tableaux, Esquisses, Dessins et Croquis, de M. Girodet-Trioson, peintre d’histoire, membre de l’Institut, officier de la Légion-d’honneur, chevalier de l’ordre de Saint-Michel; De divers ouvrages faits dans son école, De Tableaux, Dessins des trois Écoles, anciens et modernes; Estampes, Recueils, Ouvrages sur les Arts, Lythographies; Médailles et Objets divers d’Antiquité; Armures de tous les pays; Meubles rares, etc., etc., composant son Cabinet; de Figures, Bustes et Fragments divers, moulés en plâtre sur l’Antique; riches Costumes, Peaux d’Animaux, Mannequins, Chevalets, Boîtes à couleur, et objets divers, composant le mobilier de son Atelier, etc., etc. (Paris: Pérignon et Bonnefons-Lavialle, April 11, 1825), 18.
P[ierre]-A[lexandre] Coupin, Œuvres posthumes de Girodet-Trioson, peintre d’histoire; Suivies de sa correspondance; Précédés d’une notice historique, et mises en ordre (Paris: Jules Renouard, 1829), 1:lxxiv, asÉtude légèrement peinte d’après nature et très piquante d’effet.
Vente par suite de Décès: Catalogue des Tableaux et des Dessins Provenant de la Collection de Mr. A.-N. Pérignon père, Ancien Commissaire-Expert des Musées Royaux (Paris: Hôtel Drouot, May 22–23, 1865), 8, as Le Berger endormi.
Dessins, Aquarelles et Tableaux Modernes, Dessins et Tableaux Anciens, Objets d’Art, Meubles et Sièges, Tapisseries, Tapis d’Orient et d’Aubusson (Paris: Étude Couturier-Nicolay, June 2, 1972), unpaginated, (repro.), as Bacchus endormi.
Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays (Paris: Gründ, 1976), 5:43, as Bacchus endormi.
Gemälde und Zeichungen: Neuerwerbungen, Sommer 1977, exh. cat. (Munich: Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, 1977), unpaginated, (repro.), as Schlaftrunkener Bacchus mit Gefolge.
The Classical Ideal: Athens to Picasso , exh. cat. (London: David Carritt, 1979), 31, (repro.), as Sleeping Bacchus.
Neil MacGregor, “Roman Fashions, London,” Burlington Magazine 121, no. 920 (November 1979): 741.
Fine Old Master Pictures: The Properties of the Lady Anne Bentinck (removed from Welbeck Abbey); the late Theodore Besterman; P. Haigh, Esq.; the Vicar and Churchwardens of Hartland Parish, North Devon; the Late the 4th Lord Leigh (sold by order of the Executors); R.E.D. Shafto, Esq.; Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, Bt., and from various sources (London: Christie’s, December 17, 1981), 45, (repro.), as Bacchus asleep.
E. Mayer, International Auction Records 1982 (Paris: Éditions Mayer, 1982), 16:851, as Sleeping Bacchus.
Selected 19th Century Paintings and Works on Paper, exh. cat. (New York: Artemis Fine Arts, 1997), unpaginated, (repro.), as Sleeping Bacchus.
Lee Pentecost, “French Painting Added to European Art Collection,” Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (April 1998): 2, (repro.), as Sleeping Bacchus.
Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (November 2002): 12, (repro.), as Sleeping Bacchus.
Chiara Savettieri, “‘Il avait retrouvé le secret de Pygmalion’: Girodet, Canova e l’illusione della vita,” Studiolo 2 (2003): 19, 36n36, (repro.), as Bacco addormentato.
Valérie Bajou and Sidonie Lemeux-Fraitot, Inventaire après décès de Gros et de Girodet: Documents inédits (Paris: Valérie Bajou et Sidonie Lemeux-Fraitot, 2003), 257, 354–55, as Etude légèrement peinte d’après nature, et très-piquante d’effet. Elle représente, dans un paysage éclairé par le soleil couchant, Bacchus endormi. On voit près de lui un jeune faune et plusieurs vases renversés. Dans l’éloignement on aperçoit encore quelques figures légèrement indiquées and Bacchus endormi.
Sylvain Bellenger, Girodet, 1767–1824, exh. cat. (Paris: Gallimard, 2005), 210, 231–32, 233n31, (repro.), as Bacchus endormi.
Anne Lafont, Girodet (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2005), 42, 45, 47, 61, 63, (repro.), as Bacchus endormi.
Maria Teresa Caracciolo and Gennaro Toscano, eds., Jean-Baptiste Wicar et son temps, 1762–1834 (Villeneuve d’Ascq, France: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2007), 428–29, 431, (repro.), as Bacchus endormi.
Véronique Dalmasso, ed., Façons d’Endormis: Le Sommeil entre inspiration et creation (Paris: Éditions Le Manuscrit, 2012), 85.
Larry H. Peer and Christopher R. Clason, eds., Romantic Rapports: New Essays on Romanticism Across the Disciplines (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2017), 101, as Sleeping Bacchus.
Émilie Beck Saiello and Jean-Noël Bret, eds., Le Grand Tour et l’Académie de France à Rome: XVIIe–XIXe siècles (Paris: Hermann Éditeurs, 2018), 203, as Bacchus endormi.
Chiara Savettieri, Girodet face à Géricault ou la bataille romantique du Salon de 1819, exh. cat. (Montargis, France: Musée Girodet et Liénart, 2019), 116, (repro.), as Bacchus endormi.
Asher Ethan Miller, “Anne Louis Girodet-Trioson, Sleeping Bacchus, 1790/1791,” catalogue entry in French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.412.5407.
