The Death of Harmonia | Jean Baptiste Marie Pierre | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Gallery LabelHarmonia, the daughter of the king of Syracuse, was threatened by a band of conspirators who had murdered her family. To save her life, she exchanged clothes with a slave girl who, dressed as the princess, was murdered. Moved by the courage of the girl, Harmonia revealed her identity and was also killed.

Critics praised the picture as full of fire when it was exhibited at the Salon of 1751. It was engraved by C. N. Cochin that same year.

NotesHarmonia, the daughter of the king of Syracuse, was threatened by a band of conspirators who had murdered her family. To save her life, she exchanged clothes with a slave girl who, dressed as the princess, was murdered. Moved by the courage of the girl, Harmonia revealed her identity and was also killed.

Although it was exhibited in the Salon of 1751, the reviewer in the Mercure de France [see Ref. Caylus 1751] states that this picture was painted several years earlier; the author of "Jugemens sur les principaux ouvrages" [Ref. Coypel 1751] notes that it is from Pierre's earliest period. Lesur and Aaron [see Ref. 2009] date it about 1740–41.

A copy after the heads of the soldiers, probably from Pierre's workshop, is in a private collection, Paris (oil on canvas, 54 x 45 cm).

Engraved in reverse by C. N. Cochin in 1751.

The composition also appears in reverse on a vase of Chelsea ware in the British Museum, London (inv. M&ME 1763, 4-15, 1-2).

Provenanceabbé Rivière (until d.; his estate sale, April 26, 1813, Maison des Augustins de la place des Victoires, Paris, no. 95, for Fr 41.95); private collection, France (until 1959; sold to Wildenstein); [Wildenstein, Paris and New York, 1959–69; sold to MMA]

Exhibition History

Paris. Salon. 1751, no. 35.

New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc.. "Gods & Heroes: Baroque Images of Antiquity," October 30, 1968–January 4, 1969, no. 27 (lent anonymously).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Patterns of Collecting: Selected Acquisitions, 1965–1975," December 6, 1975–March 23, 1976, unnumbered cat.

References

[comte de Caylus]. "Exposition des ouvrages de l'Académie Royale de Peinture, faite dans une des sales du Louvre le 25 août 1751." Mercure de France (October 1751), p. 165, comments on the successful depiction of both a completed action and one in the process of taking place; states that the picture was finished several years earlier.

[Charles-Antoine Coypel]. Jugemens sur les principaux ouvrages exposés au Louvre, le 27 août 1751. Amsterdam, 1751, pp. 17–18, observes that the picture is filled with fire, but the subject is not clearly laid out, the draperies are too tormented with folds, and the light is too even; notes that the work is from the painter's earliest period.

Explication des peintures, sculptures, et autres ouvrages de messieurs de l'Académie Royale . . . Exh. cat.Paris, 1751, p. 22, no. 35, provide a lengthy description of the story represented, noting its source in Valerius Maximus.

Jean Locquin. La peinture d'histoire en France de 1747 à 1785: Étude sur l'évolution des idées artistiques dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1912, pp. 186, 245 [reprint, 1978, pp. 186, 245, pl. 26], notes that it was engraved by Cochin.

Marcel Roux. Inventaire du fonds français, graveurs du XVIIIe siècle. 4, Paris, 1940, p. 658, under no. 317.

Henry Bardon. "Les peintures a sujets antiques au XVIIIe siècle d'après les livrets de Salons." Gazette des beaux-arts 61 (April 1963), pp. 220, 232, 241.

Eunice Williams. Gods & Heroes: Baroque Images of Antiquity. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, 1968, unpaginated, no. 27, pl. 40, assumes that it was painted "before 1751," the year it was exhibited in the Salon.

Claus Virch. "Reports of the Departments." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 29 (October 1970), pp. 76–77, ill.

Everett Fahy. "New European Paintings Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 30 (October 1971), p. 59.

Anthony M. Clark in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1965–1975. New York, 1975, p. 88, ill.

Monique Halbout and Pierre Rosenberg. "Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre's 'The Adoration of the Shepherds'." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 56, no. 3 (1978), pp. 175–76 n. 22, note that the plate for Cochin's engraving after this picture is in the Chalcographie, Louvre, Paris; describe the painting as representing an advance in Pierre's art, possibly inspired by the criticism of La Font de Saint-Yenne ("Réflexions sur quelques causes de l'état présent de la peinture en France: avec un examen des principaux ouvrages exposés au Louvre le mois d'août, 1746," 1747, pp. 60–64).

Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, p. 364, fig. 659.

Jean-Luc Bordeaux in The Rococo Age: French Masterpieces of the Eighteenth Century. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 1983, p. 19.

Eric M. Zafran. The Rococo Age: French Masterpieces of the Eighteenth Century. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 1983, p. 55.

Colin B. Bailey. The First Painters of the King: French Royal Taste from Louis XIV to the Revolution. Exh. cat., Stair Sainty Matthiesen. New York, 1985, pp. 109, 142, no. 150 (inventory), ill., mentions our picture as an example of Pierre's early paintings, exhibiting "a brilliant technique and mastery of composition which he lost in some of his later works".

William McAllister Johnson. "La gravure d'histoire en France au XVIIIe siècle (II)." Revue de l'art no. 100 (1993), pp. 23–24, fig. 20, comments that it was unusual for Cochin's engraving to have been made before the appearance of the painting at the Salon.

Alisa Luxenberg in The Dictionary of Art. 24, New York, 1996, p. 773, notes that the painting was enthusiastically received in Paris and remarks that it may be the only depiction of this subject prior to the French Revolution; observes that "the densely packed, bulky figures suggest a Rubensian or Bolognese model".

Joseph Baillio et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, [2005], p. 78, date it 1751 [see Notes].

Nicolas Lesur and Olivier Aaron. Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre, 1714–1789: premier peintre du roi. Paris, 2009, pp. 5, 9, 13, 33–34, 56, 60, 72–73, 80, 179, 212, 221, 227, 232, 263, 289, 292, no. 24, ill. pp. 81 (color) and 221, date it about 1740–41; extend the provenance back to the Rivière sale of 1813; mention a copy after the soldiers' heads (private collection, Paris) and a Chelsea ware vase decorated with this composition in reverse (British Museum, London).

Curatorial Department

European Paintings: All