Benjamin perronnet V5 - Flipbook - Page 90
20. Pierre Paul Prud’hon
22. Helene Schjerfbeck
Putti around a candelabra
... an un昀椀nished state and the Metropolitan Museum a
昀椀nished proof (Fig. 1). The engraving is the same size (34.3
x 42.7 cm.) as a compositional sheet drawn in black and
white chalk on blue paper now in the Louvre.
At the sale of the collection of the painter’s son, Jean
Prud’hon, in 1829, in addition to the drawing now in the
Louvre described as a «sketch», there was another: «A
large drawing representing the Apprêts de l’Amour. Very
neat composition on blue paper». This same drawing
appears to have been sold with the Villenave collection in
1849. Its trace was subsequently lost. Sylvain Laveissière
has suggested that this large drawing was cut up following
the Villenave sale, and that the present sheet is a fragment
of it. Another part of the large drawing would be Amour
vu à mi-corps, a drawing exhibited in 1874 when it was
part of the Pelouse collection. The lower left of the present
sheet shows a sketch of the legs of the 昀椀gure of Amour,
suggesting that it was un昀椀nished. If the present drawing is
a fragment of the one that appeared at the Prud’hon and
Villenave sales, then the latter was not equally 昀椀nished,
which may explain why it was cut up.
Sylvain Laveissière dates the drawing from the Louvre,
which he likens stylistically to Prud’hon’s cartoons for the
Hôtel de Lannoy, circa 1798-1801.
...The following year, she was awarded a government grant
to travel to France. She arrived in Paris in the autumn of
1880 and attended Madame Trélat de Vigny’s womenonly academy for a few months, before enrolling at the
Colarossi academy in early 1881.
This drawing already demonstrates Schjerfbeck’s mastery
of portraiture, which was to be the main subject of her
work. In the same year, 1877, she executed several other
drawings, including two portraits in black chalk of his
brother Magnus, and her 昀椀rst attempts at oil painting.
Both inscriptions are probably not by Helene Schjerfbeck.
The German inscription seems to allude to the hazards
and mysteries of life. It has been suggested that the model
could be Johan Lupander, a cousin of the artist whose
oil portrait she painted in 1877. But the painting seems to
depict a slightly older boy. The drawing, like the painting,
belonged to Gösta Stenman, the leading Finnish art dealer
of the 昀椀rst part of the twentieth century. He played a key
role in promoting the work of Helene Schjerfbeck, and
owned a large number of her paintings and drawings. It
was Gôsta Stenman who, in 1938, encouraged the artist to
produce lithographs which allowed a large di昀昀usion of her
work.
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