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Mythological scene, study for the Prize of Rome 1864, French academism, Homer 1864
1864
About the Item
This rare mythological scene depicting the Greek author Homer on the island of Scyros. You will notice the Trojan War being fought in the background. Our painting, dating from 1864, is unsigned, but has a solid attribution to academic artist Henri-Léopold Lévy - as well as an extraordinary story.
The Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for promising young artists, established in during the reign of Louis XIV of France in 1663. To obtain the annual bursary and the stay in Rome that went with the Prize, competing artists had to prove their talents by completing a very difficult elimination contest.
To succeed, a student had to create an oil sketch on an assigned topic while isolated in a closed booth with no reference material to draw on. The sketches - such as the one you see here - were submitted to the judges unsigned, to insure their objectivity.
It was Diogene Maillart who won the Prix de Rome in 1864. Runners-up were Eugene Thirion and Alexandre-Louis Leloir. Among the seven other known artists competing for the prize was Henri-Léopold Lévy, and his entry is almost certainly the painting presented here.
Henri-Léopold Lévy (1840 - 1904) was a French painter of Jewish ancestry, known primarily for mythological and Biblical subjects.
He was born in Nancy as the the son of an interior decorator and embroidery manufacturer. His artistic education began at the École des beaux-arts de Paris, and studied with François-Édouard Picot, Alexandre Cabanel and Eugène Fromentin. Following three unsuccessful attempts at the Prix de Rome, he made his Salon debut in 1865 with a portrayal of Hecuba, finding the body of her son, Polydorus of Troy, at the seashore. It brought him a first-class medal.
In 1869 he was given a prize for his "Hebrew Captive Weeping at the Ruins of Jerusalem". In 1872, after showing his portrait of Herodias, he was named a Chevalier in the Legion of Honor.Despite being a Chevalier, his career suffered from the anti-Semitism that swept France after the Dreyfus Affair and he lost customers by refusing to sign his paintings with a different name. He was, however, able to continue participating in the Salon until 1903.
Paintings by Henri Lévy are today in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, as well as the museums of Arras, Brest, Cannes, Dijon, Douai, Mulhouse, Reims, Rennes and Rouen.
The unframed size of the painting is 32 x 41 cm - a French standard size 6.
- Attributed to:Henri-Léopold Lévy (1840 - 1904, French)
- Creation Year:1864
- Dimensions:Height: 20.48 in (52 cm)Width: 23.63 in (60 cm)Depth: 1.58 in (4 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Inpainting visible under UV, one tear in background restored.
- Gallery Location:Norwich, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU991310699182
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