Salome
Regnault initially represented this Italian model as an African woman, but later enlarged his canvas at the bottom and right and transformed it into a representation of the biblical temptress Salome. Hair ruffled, clothes in disarray, she has just danced for her stepfather Herod, governor of Judea. The platter and knife allude to her reward: the severed head of John the Baptist. Just months after this picture’s sensational debut at the Salon of 1870, the young Regnault was killed in the Franco-Prussian War. His posthumous fame was such that an outcry arose when the painting left France for America in 1912.
Artwork Details
- Title: Salome
- Artist: Henri Regnault (French, Paris 1843–1871 Buzenval)
- Date: 1870
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 63 x 40 1/2 in. (160 x 102.9 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of George F. Baker, 1916
- Object Number: 16.95
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
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