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PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED EAST COAST COLLECTION

FRENCH, 1815-1891
THE PHILOSOPHER

THE PHILOSOPHER

measurements
12 3/4 by 16 1/2 in.

alternate measurements
32.3 by 41.9 cm

signed E. Meissonier and indistinctly dated 18... (lower left)

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Artist's studio; sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 12-20, 1893, lot 156, illustrated
Franz Otto Matthiessen, New York (and sold: American Art Association, New York, April 1-2, 1902, lot 100, illustrated)
John A. Hogland, New York (and sold: Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York, January 22, 1903)
Sale: Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, June 4, 1975, lot 199, illustrated
H. Shickman Gallery, New York
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Tanenbaum, Toronto, Ontario (acquired from the above in October 1976)
Sale: Christie's, New York, November 11, 1998, lot 90, illustrated
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

EXHIBITED

Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition Meissonier, March 1893, no. 156
The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, The Other Nineteenth Century, Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Tanenbaum, May 26-July 9, 1978, no. 49
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Ernest Meissonier Rétrospective, March-June 1993, fig. 9

LITERATURE

Vallery C.O. Gréard, Meissonier, His Life and his Art, London, William Heinemann, 1897, p. 377 (titled A Member of the Council of Ten)Constance Cain Hungerford, Ernest Meissonier: Master in His Genre, Cambridge, 1999, p. 263, n. 14

NOTE

Depicting a scholar in a Renaissance interior, this work closely relates to Meissonier's own image of himself at the time. In the present work a bearded artist is clad in long, deep red robes, surrounded by leather bound books and seated in a x-shaped chair before a Henri II table. The rich color reflects Meissonier's later style while the careful attention to detail is a consistent quality of the artist's work.