Charles Caïus Renoux (1795-1846) The astrologer

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Charles Caïus Renoux
Charles Caïus Renoux (1795-1846) The astrologer
1841

About the Item

Charles Caïus RENOUX (Paris 1795 - Paris 1846) The Astrologer Oil on canvas H. 125 cm; W. 149 cm Signed lower right and dated 1841 Provenance : Private collection, Bordeaux Exhibition : Salon of 1841 A talented landscaper, Caïus Renoux belonged to the cenacle of “antiquarians” who, in the 1820s, rediscovered the medieval heritage of France . Many of the paintings he exhibited regularly at the Salon from 1822 depict interiors of churches or cloisters, often dramatically lit and animated by mines or pilgrims. He collaborated with Baron Taylor for his work on Brittany, and the seven paintings he showed at the Salon of 1824 had all been acquired by M. du Sommerard, founder of the Cluny museum. Finally, he frequented two other specialists in the genre, Daguerre and Bouton, who also devoted themselves to painting ruined churches, and with whom he participated in the famous enterprise of the Daguerre diorama. During the reign of Louis-Philippe, Renoux received several orders of historical subjects for the museum of Versailles. Leaving the pure register of architecture, Caüs Renoux has sometimes delivered scenes in period costumes in a medieval setting, which place him in the last phase of the “troubadour” current. It is moreover by its pictorial treatment more than by the choice of medieval subjects, that it relates to the movement illustrated under the First Empire by a Pierre Revoil or a Fleury Richard. In 1842, he exhibited at the Salon Albert Dürer in his studio, and in 1843 Henri d'Albret received Chanoine from the chapter of Auch. Large in size, our painting clearly represents the interior of a 16th century astrologer, consulted by a noble lady followed by a lady companion. The celestial globe, as well as a whole jumble of human or mammoth skulls, grimoires, monster in jar, potions and elixirs in flasks or apothecary's mortar, leave little doubt about the profession of the master. places - neither his appearance of mage or the hand that the lady holds out to him to have the future read to him. This genre scene of a subject often treated by the Dutch in the seventeenth century, is the pretext to imagine a contemporary interior of the French Renaissance. Under a barrel vault richly ornamented with grotesques and children in foliage, the artist has arranged all the furniture from the last decades of the 16th century, restored with a certain accuracy. We recognize a two-part piece of furniture carved with caryatids, mascarons and motifs in the style of Hugues Sambin, a dresser, a ceremonial table with a "fan" base, a rock crystal bowl. The back chairs could be contemporary with Henri IV. Flemish greenery populated by exotic birds cover the top of the walls, while a high fireplace offers in the foreground its white stone mantle adorned with a bas-relief with Adam and Eve. In the background, a curtain half hides a staircase shrouded in golden light, undoubtedly going up to a naturally lit floor. The theme of the staircase starting from a cellar to go towards the day was a leitmotif of certain troubadour painters such as Fleury-Richard. This sumptuously decorated gallery, fitted out in a basement apparently without openings, is part of a fiction cobbled together with truthful elements, as does this astrologer-alchemist worthy of a novel by Alexandre Dumas. Preceding by a few years the opening of the Cluny museum, our painting thus superbly bears witness to the imagination that the artists of the first nineteenth century developed around this period in full rediscovery that was the French Renaissance. And as Dumas himself said, "we can violate history on condition that we give it beautiful children"!

Creator:
Charles Caïus Renoux (1795 - 1846, French)
Creation Year:
1841
Dimensions:
Height: 49.22 in (125 cm)Width: 58.67 in (149 cm)
Medium:
Oil,Canvas
Movement & Style:
French School
Period:
1770-1779
Condition:
Perfect condition. Cleaned.
Gallery Location:
BELEYMAS, FR
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1860210122242