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Artist or Maker: CHARLES-EDOUARD DELORT (1841-1895)
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Provenance: Anonymous sale, New York, 18 October 1944.
Richard Green, London.
Anonymous sale, Christie's New York, 6 May 1999, lot 55.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
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Literature: E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, vol. III, Paris, 1976, p. 476.
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Notes: Charles-Edouard Delort began his studies under Gabriel-Charles Gleyre in 1859 at the behest of Jean-Léon Gérôme and in 1864 he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts to work with both masters. In Les Noces, Fontainebleau, Delort employs the same meticulous attention to detail in his depiction of contemporary belle epoque life that he had in his period genre subjects set in seventeenth and eighteenth century France. Moreover, its large scale format, unusual in Delort's oeuvre, underscores the significance the artist gave to the work.
Les Noces, Fontainebleau is set in the forest of Fontainebleau, a favorite gathering ground for Parisian aristocracy at the turn of the century. In the painting, Delort depicts an elegant wedding reception with photographic accuracy. As with the scenes of modern life that had earned Alfred Stevens and James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot fame, Delort pays particular attention to the rendering of the couture gowns worn by the ladies and the elegant attire of their gentlemen escorts. Just as these two artists represented modernity in their paintings by placing figures in a naturalistic environment, Delort also chooses to arrange the wedding party in conversational groupings in an outdoor setting. Les Noces, Fontainebleau can be interpreted as a text replete with vignettes that would have been readily understood by Delort's audience for their portrayal of the complicated social dynamics of the nouveau beau monde: scenes of flirtations, serious political discourse, rituals of etiquette, and intimate tête-à-têtes.
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