Lot 168: HENRI-PIERRE-LÉON-PHARAMOND BLANCHARD LYON 1805-PARIS 1873

THE PROPERTY OF STAIR SAINTY

TROPICAL LANDSCAPE WITH PAUL AND VIRGINIE

measurements note
15 6/8 by 23 5/8 in.; 40.5 by 60 cm.

signed and dated lower left BLANCHARD 1844

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Private collection, France, from whom purchased by Stair Sainty.

EXHIBITED

New Orleans, New Orleans Museum of Art; New York, Stair Sainty Matthiesen Inc.; Cincinnati, Taft Museum, Romance and Chivalry: History and Literature Reflected in Early Nineteenth Century Painting, June 23, 1996 - February 12, 1997, no. 3.

NOTE

Blanchard's extensive travels in such exotic locales as Mexico, Brazil, North Africa and the Near East had an enormous impact on his outlook and on his art, especially in his mastery of exotic species of flora and fauna. Bernadin de Saint Pierre's novel Paul et Virginie, first published in 1788, rapidly became the most important literary success of its time. The story of two French-born children who grow up on the exotic island of Mauritius carried tremendous appeal with French readers, then and now. In this picture, the two youths are represented as Paul helps Virginie fashion boots out of leaves on their way to attempt to help a runaway slave. The figures, however, are shown in very small scale in relation to the luxuriant surrounding landscape, to which Blanchard devoted the better part of his canvas, reproducing specific cacti and palms among other vegetal species, which he must have known from his travels, and recorded for later use.