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Description: | The Russell-Cotes painting by the Turinese painter Cesare Saccaggi appears to be an early work, probably executed during his Parisian period between 1895 and 1905. The classical elements for which Saccaggi's work was admired are clearly evident in this painting, while the symbolist qualities of his best, later work, are absent. This painting successful evokes Empire period portraits by artists such as Jean-Babtiste Greuze (1725-1805) and Baron François Gerard (1770-1837). Such neoclassical evocations appealed to popular Parisian taste during the last years of the nineteenth century and were catered for by artists such as Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) and Charles Chaplin (1825-1891). The Empress Eugene commented about such works: "je me mets dans mes meubles" ("I discover myself among my furnishings"). In Saccaggi's painting we see a young woman, seated on a late nineteenth-century chair, dressed in a pink silk Empire style dress, playing a lyre of 'neo-grec' design. She wears her hair up in the Empire style and behind her, on a neoclassical semi-circular console table, is a silver gilt urn also in the neoclassical style. These accruements clearly identify the scene's setting in a wealthy, elegant, contemporary interior. The unidentified sitter, shown in profile - one of the preferred methods of neoclassical portraiture - may be the main subject of this painting, or so may be her action of playing music, suggesting her role as a muse or allegory of music. It is notable however that Saccaggi's inclusion of the open music book from which she reads lends the scene an anecdotal genre quality which firmly grounds the scene in the present. | Subjects: | figure; interior; allegory (music); portrait [?] | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Saccaggi, Cesare (Italian painter 1868-1934) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8468... | Go to resource |
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