Lot 115: CHARLES JOSEPH FRÉDÉRIC SOULACROIX

PROPERTY FROM A NEW ENGLAND PRIVATE COLLECTION

FRENCH, 1825-1879
THE CONCERT

measurements
42 1/4 by 70 3/4 in.

alternate measurements
107.3 by 179.7 cm

signed F. Soulacroix Florence (lower right)

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Kurt L. Schon, Ltd., New Orleans (in June 1992)
Callan Fine Art, New Orleans
Acquired from the above by the present owner on April 12, 2000

NOTE

Soulacroix's The Concert portrays an audience of women wearing sumptuous silk dresses of the period and men in dashing cavalier costumes, all listening to a string trio. Though this scene may seem a flight of fancy to the present-day viewer, contemporary admirers considered it more or less an accurate portrayal of courtly life. Many bourgeois and upper-class patrons of Soulacroix's work believed that the heyday of European courts was the golden age of elegance--where a day could be spent gathered with friends gossiping, interrupted only by a private recital. Certainly Soulacroix's work is based in historical fact and court culture of the seventeenth centuries. Due to their great wealth and power, Europe's royalty often felt a responsibility to support the arts. While some kings and queens took their patronage more seriously than others, music was a universally important aspect of court life; the best palaces often hosted great composers, and changing royal tastes and trends prompted new developments in music theory. Outside of providing entertainment, a concert event provided an opportunity for state occasions or more intimate social interactions, where various (and often infighting or feuding) groups could gather together under cultural pretext. Indeed, as Soulacroix portrays in the present work, the interior design of the spaces that held concerts was as influential as the music played. Expensive and elaborate tapestries hung as illustrative backdrops for the musicians, while a large, oblong room, devoid of superfluous, potentially distracting furniture or decoration, held rows of seated and rapt listeners; this same decorative strategy translated to the great homes of Soulacroix's patrons. The music room was an important element of large houses of the late nineteenth century. Like the great picture galleries of the finest mansions, the music salon was a room removed from utilitarian necessity, thereby proclaiming the owner's wealth and cultural refinement. Often the ideal private concert space of the nineteenth century emulated that of earlier period's palatial design, with a high and coved ceiling to ensure a satisfactory sound with a varied décor that was neither too heavy or too fanciful (Arnold Lewis, James Turner and Steven McQuillin, The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age, New York, 1987, p. 36). Invited to gather in the music rooms of Paris, London, Boston or New York, Soulacroix's contemporaries could reenact the same personal pleasures of past royalty, enjoying a fine concert while demonstrating their support of the arts, refined taste, and sociability.