B.
Empress Eugénie
Behind the scenes
The Gallery library has received a new book about the art collection of Empress Eugénie, wife of Emperor Napoléon III.
Empress Eugénie and the arts: politics and visual culture in the nineteenth century by Alison McQueen (Ashgate, 2011)
This is one of the library books we haven't had to pay for as we contributed a photograph of one of our own works to it. This is Henriette Browne's La lecture de la Bible:
Henriette Browne La Lecture de la Bible 1857. Oil on canvas. Collection Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū; presented by R E McDougall, 1930
The Empress assembled a very large art collection and, when her husband was deposed in 1870, they took much of it with them into exile in England. He died in 1873 but Eugénie lived another 47 years, dying in 1920. The final works from her collection were sold at Christie's in 1922 including, as reported in The Times, two works by Henriette Browne:
The Times, Saturday 28 January 1922, page 8
The painting was brought to New Zealand, bought by Robert McDougall who in turn gave it, as part of the foundation of the Gallery which bore his name, to the City of Christchurch.
Related
Exhibition
Treasury: A Generous Legacy
18 December 2015 – 4 December 2016
Stunning proof of the impact of generosity on the Christchurch collection.
Collection
Henriette Browne La Lecture de la Bible
The French artist Henriette Browne excelled at painting highly realist, representational narrative paintings and La Lecture de la Bible is one of her finest. Browne produced several portraits of religious devotees and the two young women in this painting are thought to be novices studying to enter a religious order. They are clearly virtuous – their austere black garments suggest a puritan character and the painting is also known as The Puritans. The withered flowers on the table are the most obvious narrative element in the painting, these are a vanitas symbol for the passing of time and the loss of youth. La Lecture de la Bible was first owned by Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoléon III, and was presented to the Gallery by its major benefactor, Robert McDougall.
(New Dawn Fades, November 2018)
First exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1857 with the title 'Les Puritaines', this painting has for many years also been known as 'La Lecture de la Bible'.