Description:

Jean-Léon Gérôme
Bougival, France, Friday [n.d. but ca. 1863]
Fabulous Artistic Content! Jean-Léon Gérôme ALS Recommending Architect Gabriel Davioud For Eugène Delacroix Tomb Commission!
ALS
A 2pp autograph letter in French signed by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904), the prominent French painter and sculptor, as "JL Gérome" at its conclusion on page 2. N.d. except "Friday," but almost certainly ca. 1863, sometime shortly after the death of fellow French artist Eugène Delacroix, whose tomb is being discussed. Bougival, France, where Gérôme summered and had a workshop. Inscribed on laid bifold paper. The third page and outer leaf are blank. Expected wear including flattened paper folds and a few extra wrinkles. A round partially rusted impression is found at the top edge not affecting any text. Else near fine and very legible. 4" x 6." Accompanied by an Auction Certificate from RR Auction (Amherst, New Hampshire), as well as a former collector's notes.

Gérôme addressed this letter to fellow French artist Adrien Dauzats (1804-1868). Dauzats was a close friend and colleague of Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), that powerhouse painter of French Romanticism, who had died at the age of 65 years old after a brief illness in mid-August 1863. Although not an executor of Delacroix's will, Dauzats evidently played another important posthumous role; he belonged to a commission tasked with overseeing the erection of Delacroix's funeral monument in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Gérôme wrote this letter recommending his friend, the French architect Gabriel Davioud (1824-1881), as a candidate to spearhead the project.

Translated in full, with punctuation silently added for clarity:

"Bougival. Friday

My dear Dauzats,

I have a request to make of you and if I address it to you by writing it is only that I am still in the country for a few days and that I don't want to delay. You belong to a commission charged with overseeing the tomb that they must raise for Mr. Eug. Delacroix - I am advised that you don't have an architect or that at least you haven't yet decided on the choice. Permit me to recommend to you one of my friends of great talent, Mr. Davioud, who I am sure, with your advice, will make an interesting work of art. He is an artist of very fine taste who will know how to best understand the task that you will have reserved for him.

Receive, my dear Dauzats, my most cordial salutations.

JL Gérome."

Gérôme's candidate for the Delacroix tomb project was Gabriel Davioud, a highly decorated architect who had closely collaborated with Baron Haussmann on the latter's ambitious urban rehaul of Second Empire Paris. Davioud's portfolio included an impressive number of municipal projects, such as theatres, city halls, fountains, parks, etc. Despite Gérôme's enthusiastic recommendation letter, we know that another architect was eventually chosen for the project. The appointed architect was Denis Darcy (1823-1904), who had worked for Viollet-le-Duc and had much experience with ecclesiastical construction and restoration. Darcy completed Delacroix's tomb between 1863-1865.

Delacroix's tomb project did not require any artistic design, as Delacroix had extensively planned it in advance of his death (in fact, Delacroix's specifications for the tomb are described in his 1859 will.) Delacroix chose the sarcophagus of Roman statesman and general Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus as the model for his mid-19th-C. tomb. The final design is an austere monument in sleek black basalt. Its only ornamentation remains two Ionic terminals at top, and a frieze of triglyphs and metopes around the top of the base. Delacroix's name appears in Roman gilt lettering below.

Interestingly, our letter writer, his correspondent, and the indirect subject of his letter, Eugène Delacroix, were all interested in l'Orientalisme, the mid-19th C. French artistic movement fascinated by all things Asian, Middle Eastern, and Northern African. All three artists - Jean-Léon Gérôme, Adrien Dauzats, and Eugène Delacroix - depicted exotic scenes in their work inspired by the Classical World and by their own world travels. The trio depicted such imagination-stirring subjects as carpet merchants, tribal dancers, snake charmers, Roman gladiators, and mythological figures.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Provenance: RR Auction Certificate.
  • Dimensions: 4" x 6"
  • Medium: ALS

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