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.
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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
Accession Number:16.95
Inscription: Signed, dated, and inscribed (left center): HRegnault [initials in monogram] / Rome 1870
[probably Galerie Brame, Paris, 1870, bought from the artist for Fr 14,000; sold in March 1870 for Fr 16,000 to Durand-Ruel]; [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1870–72; stock no. 522, sold to Cassin]; Adèle de Cassin (later the marquise de Landolfo Carcano), Paris (1872–1912; her sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 30–June 1, 1912, no. 67, for Fr 480,000 to Knoedler); [Knoedler, Paris, 1912; shipped in September to Knoedler, New York]; [Knoedler, New York, 1912–16; sold in July for $102,524 to Knoedler]; Roland F. Knoedler, New York (1916; sold to Baker); George F. Baker, New York (1916)
Paris. Salon. May 1–June 20, 1870, no. 2390 (lent by M. Durand-Ruel).
Paris. Ecole des Beaux-Arts. "Oeuvres de Henri Regnault," March 1872, no. 55 (lent by Mme de Cassin).
Paris. Galerie Georges Petit. "Une Collection particulière," October 1–December 10, 1884, no. 41.
New York. Grand Central Palace. "The Allied Bazaar," June 3–14, 1916, unnumbered cat.
New York. Knoedler. "An Exhibition of Paintings and Prints of Every Description, on the Occasion of Knoedler, One Hundred Years, 1846–1946," April 1–27, 1946, no. 82.
Hartford, Conn. Wadsworth Atheneum. "The Romantic Circle: French Romantic Painting, Delacroix and his Contemporaries," October 15–November 30, 1952, no. 62.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971, no. 370.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, not in catalogue.
Philadelphia. Memorial Hall. "International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine [The Centennial Exhibition]," May 10–November 10, 1876, not in catalogue [see Sterling and Salinger 1966].
New York. Wildenstein. "Sarah Bernhardt and her Times," November 13–December 28, 1984, unnumbered cat.
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT.
Henri Regnault. Letter to M. Montfort. April 15, 1869 [published in Ref. Duparc 1904, p. 261], calls it "Hérodiade".
Henri Regnault. Letters to his father. June–October 1869 [published in Ref. Duparc 1904, pp. 275, 277–79, 321], writes in October 1869 that "je tiens, en rentrant à Rome, à terminer immédiatement ma petite femme au fond jaune (Hérodiade, l'esclave favorite, la poetassa de Cordoba) le nom ne fait rien à l'affaire".
Camille Lemonnier. Salon de Paris, 1870. Paris, 1870, pp. 75–78.
J. Goujon. Beaux-arts, Salon de 1870 propos en l'air. Paris, 1870, pp. 92–93.
B. de Mezin. Promenades en long et en large au Salon de 1870. Paris, 1870, p. 22.
Elie Sorin. Le Salon de 1870: Peinture et sculpture. Angers, 1870, pp. 10, 19 [reprinted in "Revue historique, littéraire et archéologique de l'Anjou," 4ème sér, vol. 7 (1872), pp. 34, 43].
René Ménard. "Salon de 1870 (1er article)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 2nd ser., 3 (June 1870), pp. 503–5.
Zacharie Astruc. "Le Salon." L'Écho des beaux-arts 1 (May 20, 1870), pp. 2–3.
Henri Regnault. Letters to his father. March 3, May 8, 1870 [published in Ref. Duparc 1904, pp. 342–43, 357–58], remarks that Salome "n'est pas un nom assez bizarre, je voudrais un nom que personne ne pût prononcer" and refers to the "férocité caressante" of the figure.
Henri Regnault. Letter to A. Duparc. March 8, 1870 [published in Ref. Duparc 1904, p. 345], reports that he is occupied with finishing this picture, referring to it as "Hérodiade".
[Jules] Castagnary. "Salon de 1870 (1er article)." Le Siècle (May 9, 1870), p. 2.
Marius Chaumelin. "Salon de 1870. II." La presse (May 21, 1870), p. 2.
Victor Regnault. Letter to [Antoine?] Montfort. March 17, 1870 [Archives des Musées nationaux, Paris, P 30 Regnault, enveloppe B], discusses the dispatch from Africa of the painting [identified as such on the manuscript by another hand] and its imminent receipt by Durand-Ruel.
Théodore de Banville. La danseuse. 1870, p. 203 [published as part of his "Rimes dorées" in "Oeuvres de Théodore de Banville," Paris, 1891], dedicates this poem about The Met's picture to Regnault.
Henri Regnault. Letter to Hector Brame from Seville. April 23, 1870 [see Bénédite 1912].
[Edmond] Duranty. "Le Salon de 1870." Paris-journal 3 (May 5, 1870), unpaginated.
Louis Enault. "Le Salon de 1870." La vogue parisienne 5 (May 6, 1870), p. 2, praises the painting's color and the varied textures depicted.
"Le Salon-revue: Troubles au cours de M. Le Professeur Courbet." Le charivari 39 (May 10, 1870), unpaginated [p. 2], in a fictional conversation, “Le Professeur Courbet” remarks that it is “biblique comme une faiseuse de tours de la foire de Saint-Cloud” (as biblical as a magician at the Saint-Cloud fair), while “Le Rapin” and “Le Manettiste” admire its color, brilliance, and harmony.
Victor Fournel. "Le Salon de 1870." Gazette de France 240 (May 20, 1870), unpaginated.
Jacq[ues]. Rosier. "Exposition des deaux-arts: Salon de 1870." Fantaisie parisienne 3 (May 31, 1870), p. 14, praises the painting, stating that Regnault treated the subject with an unequaled brio, but notes that the figure's hidden right hand is ill-attached.
Henri Baillière. Henri Regnault,1843–1871. Paris, 1871, p. 18, notes that the same model posed for Marcello's "Pythie" [see Ref. Pierre 2003].
Eugène Fromentin. Letter to Ferdinand Humbert. September 6, 1871 [published in Ref. Wright 1995, p. 1699, no. 1083], regarding Humbert's painting of "Judith," advises him to "défiez-vous du moderne: pensez à la 'Salomé' de Regnault, pour vous tenir à l'opposé".
Henri Baillière. Henri Regnault,1843–1871. Paris, 1872, pp. 30–31, 58–62, 73, 93, notes that this picture began as a study of the head of a peasant girl, which Regnault then enlarged to bust-length and called "Study of an African Woman"; states that the picture was purchased unseen by a Spanish dealer who paid the artist Fr 14,000 and then sold it to a famous dealer, and that it then passed from Brame to Mme Cassin, who bought it for Fr 35,000.
Paul Mantz. "Henri Regnault." Gazette des beaux-arts, 2nd ser., 5 (January 1872), pp. 78–80, ill. opp. p. 78 (etching by Rajon).
Henri Cazalis. Henri Regnault: Sa vie et son œuvre. Paris, 1872, pp. 73–75, 187–88, states that this picture was begun in Rome and completed in Tangier, and that its original title was "Etude de femme africaine," then "L'Esclave favorite"; comments that Regnault regretted not depicting the violence of the Salome story; notes that it was bought by Durand-Ruel for Fr 14,000 and sold to Mme de Cassin for Fr 40,000.
Théophile Gautier. Oeuvres de Henri Regnault. Exh. cat., Ecole des Beaux-Arts. [Paris], [1872], pp. 17–25, 64, no. 55.
Victor Regnault. Letter to [Antoine?] Montfort. April 17, 1872 [Archives des Musées nationaux, Paris, P 30 Regnault, enveloppe B], discusses the negotiations behind the display of the picture at Exh. Paris 1872.
Jules Claretie. Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains. Paris, 1873, pp. 325, 338, 345, 351.
Lucy H. Hooper. "From Abroad: Our Paris Letter." Appletons' Journal 14 (July 31, 1875), p. 155, relates that in the spring of 1870 [Mariano] Fortuny suggested to Regnault that he "take that head which you sketched lately and put a body to it" and exhibit it at the Salon.
Charles Blanc. Les Artistes de mon temps. Paris, 1876, pp. 361–62, ill. p. 353 (engraving by Albert Duvivier).
Philip Gilbert Hamerton. Modern Frenchmen: Five Biographies. London, 1878, pp. 396–97.
A. Angellier. Étude sur Henri Regnault. Paris, 1879, pp. 61–63, 72–73.
Hermann Billung. "Henri Regnault." Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst 15 (1880), pp. 98–100.
H. Blaze de Bury. Musiciens du passé, du présent, et de l'avenir. Paris, 1880, p. 330.
Alice Meynell. "Henri Regnault." Magazine of Art 4 (1881), pp. 71–73, ill. (engraving).
Georges Lafenestre. L'art vivant: La peinture et la sculpture aux Salons de 1868 à 1877. Vol. 1, Paris, 1881, pp. 178–80.
Jules Claretie. Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains. Paris, 1882, vol. 1, pp. 13, 18, 20–21.
G. W. Sheldon. Hours with Art and Artists. reprint, 1978. New York, 1882, pp. 77–79, ill. (engraving by Albert Duvivier).
Adolf Rosenberg. "Henri Regnault." Die Grenzboten 42 (1883), pp. 523–26.
Victor Fournel. Les Artistes français contemporains: Peintres—sculpteurs. Tours, 1884, pp. 476, 478–80, ill. opp. p. 475 (etching by Paul Rajon).
André Michel. "A propos d'une collection particulière (Collection de Mme de Cassin; Galerie G. Petit)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 2nd ser., 30 (December 1884), p. 500.
Th[éodore]. Duret. Critique d'avant-garde. Paris, 1885, pp. 52–53.
Roger Marx. Henri Regnault, 1843–1871. Paris, [1886], pp. 66–69, 99, ill. (etching by Rajon), notes that Regnault formerly called this picture "Hérodiade," "Femme africaine," "Esclave favorite," and "Poetassa de Cordoba".
S. A. Coale Jr. Letter to James J. Hill. December 31, 1886 [Minnesota Historical Society, Box 20.A.4.3, folder 17], states that the late Mr. Vanderbilt offered "Madame Casin" [sic] (Adèle de Cassin) $30,000 for the painting but the offer was refused.
Theodore Child. "Madame de Cassin's Pictures." Art Amateur 17 (September 1887), pp. 75–78, ill. (engraving by Duvivier), states that Brame purchased it from Regnault in Spain, while the picture itself was in Rome, for Fr 12,000; traces its provenance next to Durand-Ruel, who sold it to M. Edwards for Fr 36,000, and then to Mme Cassin for Fr 60,000.
Clarence Cook. Art and Artists of Our Time. New York, 1888, vol. 1, pp. 147–50, ill.
Camille Lemonnier. Les Peintres de la vie. Paris, 1888, pp. 94–96.
Charles Bigot. Peintres français contemporains. Paris, 1888, pp. 121–23.
Gustave Larroumet. Henri Regnault, 1843–1871. Paris, 1889, pp. 23, 65.
Benjamin Constant. "La peinture du siècle." La vie artistique (September 22, 1889), p. 244, notes that he had seen it a few years before at the Galerie Georges Petit and that the yellow background drapery is toned down; comments favorably upon the manner in which the facial features have been painted.
Jules Breton. Nos peintres du siècle. Paris, [189?], p. 208.
Alfred de Lostalot. L'École française de Delacroix à Regnault. Paris, [1891], pp. 152, 156, ill. (frontispiece, etching by Rajon).
Alphonse Bacheret. Une centaine de peintres: The Works of One Hundred Great Masters (Engraved) with Descriptive Text. Philadelphia, [1895?], vol. 9-10, pl. 59.
Arthur Duparc, ed. Correspondance de Henri Regnault. Paris, 1904, pp. 260–61, 273, 275, 277, 279, 321, 326, 342–45, 357–67, 391, 429.
Léonce Bénédite. "Regnault (Henri): Salomé." Les Maîtres contemporains no. 10 (1912), unpaginated, no. 55, ill. (color), states that Brame bought this picture from Madrid, without having seen it, for Fr 13,000; relates that prior to the Carcano sale, a subscription was begun to raise funds to keep the painting in France, but that it was outbid by Roland Knoedler for the purchase price of Fr 528,000; notes that Knoedler delayed sending the picture to New York to allow the French government another opportunity to meet his price; comments that the picture was begun in Rome in March 1869 and completed in Tangier in early 1870.
"Want 'Salome' in Louvre." New York Times (May 29, 1912), p. 5.
"France to Keep 'Salome'." New York Times (May 30, 1912), p. 4, the day before the Carcano sale, reports that the fundraising effort to purchase this picture for the Louvre is being led by Henri de Rothschild and appears to be successful.
"Regnault 'Salome' Coming to America." New York Times (May 31, 1912), p. 6, describes the sale of this picture to Knoedler "amid groans and hisses" in the auction room; comments that "the loss of the picture is regretted the more keenly here" because Regnault was killed during the Franco-Prussian war in 1871.
"'Salome' May Come Here." New York Times (June 14, 1912), p. 4.
"Our Gain in Art Disturbs France." New York Times (June 9, 1912), p. C3.
"Louvre Has Option to Buy 'Salome'." New York Times (June 1, 1912), p. 3.
"Reveals Romance of Salome Model." New York Times (June 29, 1912), p. 1, relates the story of Maria Latini, the model for this picture, who was the fiancée of a friend of Regnault.
"More Time to Buy 'Salome'." New York Times (July 1, 1912), p. 6.
R[obert]. E. D[ell]. "Art in France." Burlington Magazine 21 (July 1912), pp. 235–36, 240.
Raymond Bouyer. "Galeries et collections: la Collection Carcano." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 31 (April 1912), p. 313, ill. opp. p. 312.
Max.[ime] Collignon. [Procès verbal of the Conseil des musées nationaux]. May 29, 1912, p. 47, states that the Conseil des musées nationaux in France had decided to offer 200,000 francs to be added to the outside subscription already organized in the hopes of acquiring the picture for the French people at the Carcano sale.
L[ouis]. Dimier. "Le bluff de la Salomé." L'Action française 5 (June 1, 1912), p. 1.
[François] Thiebault-Sisson. "Art et curiosité: La vente Carcano." Le temps 52 (June 1, 1912), unpaginated.
Léonce Bénédite. "Art et curiosité: La 'Salomé' d'Henri Regnault." Le temps 52 (June 2, 1912), unpaginated, provides information about the model Maria Latini, including that she was the wife of a sculptor-friend of Regnault's and that she died in 1900; publishes a letter from Regnault to the dealer Hector Brame regarding payments for the painting (Regnault April 23, 1870); notes that Regnault called the painting his "petite Hérodiade".
Léon Daudet. "La bourse aux tableaux: Les salomeries d'Arthur Meyer." L'Action française 5 (June 4, 1912), p. 1.
André Michel. "Promenades aux Salons." Journal des débats 124 (June 5, 1912), p. 1.
"Echos: Surenchères." Gil Blas 34 (June 21, 1912), p. 1, discusses the French state's balking at the picture's 50,000 franc price tag at the Carcano sale of 1912 and notes its final sale price of 480,000 francs.
Fantasio. "Les papotages de Fantasio." Fantasio CXLIII (July 1, 1912), p. 820, bemoans of the loss of the work to the United States and the French museums' inability to retain it in France.
Lucien Métivet. "La ligue antisalomique." Fantasio CXLIII (July 1, 1912), p. 821.
"La potinière." Fantasio CXLIII (July 1, 1912), p. 851, reproduces a photograph identified as a portrait of the "true" model who posed for the painting in Tangier.
"'Salome' for America." New York Times (January 5, 1913), p. C2.
Robert Dell. "Paris Letter: New Galleries." American Art News 11 (April 12, 1913), p. 5, mentions having seen this picture in Knoedler's Paris gallery.
Max Goth. "Entretien avec le fils de la Salomé de Henri Regnault." Gil blas 35 (January 26, 1913), p. 1, states the model was the Roman woman Maria Latini Rénaudot and that her son was the intimist painter Paul Rénaudot.
"Art Museum Gets Regnault's Salome." New York Times (August 11, 1916), pp. 1, 9.
H. T. Sudduth. "Regnault's 'Salome'." New York Times (August 20, 1916), p. E2, ill. p. RP1.
"The 'Salome' of Henri Regnault." Vanity Fair 6 (August 1916), p. 47, ill. p. 46.
B[ryson]. B[urroughs]. "Regnault's Salome." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 11 (August 1916), pp. 164–66, ill. on cover, states that it was begun in 1868 and finished in 1870.
Florence N. Levy. "The Art Market." American Magazine of Art 9 (November 1917), pp. 10, 12, ill. p. 2.
Georges Rivière. Renoir et ses amis. Paris, 1921, p. 47.
Henri Focillon. La peinture aux XIXe et XXe siècles: Du réalisme à nos jours. Paris, 1928, p. 101.
Joseph C. Sloane. French Painting Between the Past and the Present: Artists, Critics, and Traditions, from 1848 to 1870. [reprint 1973]. Princeton, 1951, p. 177, fig. 87.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 81.
Mario Praz. The Romantic Agony. 2nd ed. London, 1954, pp. 301, 392 n. 20, compares it to Regnault's "Summary Execution under the Moorish Kings of Grenada" (1870, Musée d'Orsay, Paris); mentions Théodore de Banville's poem inspired by The Met's picture (see Banville 1870).
Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), p. 7, ill. p. 54.
John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. rev., enl. ed. New York, 1961, pp. 242, 268 n. 8a, ill.
Daniel Halévy. My Friend Degas. Ed. Mina Curtiss. Middletown, Conn., 1964, p. 114.
Mina Curtiss, ed. My Friend Degas.. By Daniel Halévy. Middletown, Conn., 1964, p. 104 n. 2.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, pp. 201–4, ill.
Introduction by Kenneth Clark. Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1970, p. 312, no. 370, ill.
Carl R. Baldwin. "The Salon of '72." Art News 71 (May 1972), p. 20, ill.
Christopher Sells. "Paris." Burlington Magazine 114 (February 1972), p. 110.
Carl R. Baldwin. The Impressionist Epoch. Exh. brochure, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [New York], 1974, p. 11.
Julius Kaplan. Gustave Moreau. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1974, p. 34, fig. 21.
Fine Continental Pictures of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Christie's, London. May 7, 1976, p. 25, under no. 111, illustrates a sketch for this picture.
Anthea Callen. Renoir. London, 1978, p. 11, fig. 4.
Gudrun Schubert. "Women and Symbolism: Imagery and Theory." Oxford Art Journal 3 (April 1980), p. 30.
Donald A. Rosenthal. Orientalism: The Near East in French Painting 1800–1880. Exh. cat., Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, N.Y., 1982, p. 85, fig. 83.
Julius Kaplan. The Art of Gustave Moreau: Theory, Style, and Content. PhD diss., Columbia University. Ann Arbor, 1982, p. 57, states that it may have been the source for Moreau's idea to paint Salome.
Lynne Thornton. Les Orientalistes: Peintres voyageurs, 1828–1908. Paris, 1983, pp. 159–60, ill. (color) [English ed., 1983], states that Regnault purchased the shimmering fabrics worn by the model at the Universal Exposition of 1867 in Paris and in Spain.
Anne Hudson Jones and Karen Kingsley. "Salome in Late Nineteenth-Century French Art and Literature." Studies in Iconography 9 (1983), pp. 108–11, 123, fig. 1, comment that Flaubert was influenced by this picture when he wrote "Hérodias".
Richard Shiff. Cézanne and the End of Impressionism. Chicago, 1984, pp. 85, 87, 95, fig. 13.
T. J. Clark. The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers. New York, 1984, pp. 115–16, 294 n. 122, fig. 39, quotes from Ref. Lemonnier 1870, noting the critic's assumption that the figure of Salome was also a courtesan.
Lucy Oakley inRecent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1986–1987. New York, 1987, p. 39, relates it to Alfred Steven's "In the Studio," which depicts a model posing as Salome.
Mireille Dottin inSalome dans les collections françaises. Ed. Catherine Camboulives. Exh. cat., Musée d'Art et d'Histoire. Saint-Denis, 1988, p. 15, ill. p. 12, erroneously as at the National Gallery of Art, Washington; discusses the "Affaire Salomé" that arose with the painting's departure for the United States.
Evelyne-Dorothée Allemand and Catherine Camboulives inSalome dans les collections françaises. Ed. Catherine Camboulives. Exh. cat., Musée d'Art et d'Histoire. Saint-Denis, 1988, p. 25, misidentify the location of the picture as the National Gallery of Art, Washington; cite Paul de Saint-Victor's criticism of the painting without attributing a source; note that it introduced a new twist on the theme by focusing on Salome and placing her in a costume that could transform her into all sorts of (male) "sycophants'" fantasy figures.
Jean-Marc Olivesi inSalome dans les collections françaises. Ed. Catherine Camboulives. Exh. cat., Musée d'Art et d'Histoire. Saint-Denis, 1988, pp. 29–30.
Geneviève Lacambre. "Le temps du Salon." L'Art du XIXe siècle, 1850–1905. Ed. Françoise Cachin. Paris, 1990, p. 42.
Sophie de Juvigny inHenri Regnault (1843–1871). Exh. cat., Musée Municipal de Saint-Cloud. Saint-Cloud, 1991, pp. 112–13, ill. (color), compares it to a much smaller watercolor version (Lucile Audouy collection, Paris); notes the painting's indebtedness to his travels in Spain and Morocco.
Jean-Patrice Marandel inFrédéric Bazille: Prophet of Impressionism. Exh. cat., Musée Fabre, Montpellier. Brooklyn, 1992, p. 73, fig. 35.
Mireille Dottin-Orsini. "'Salomé' de Henri Regnault, genèse et description d'un tableau légendaire." Textes, Images, Musique. Ed. Andrée Mansau and Jean-Louis Cabanès. Toulouse, 1992, pp. 30–45, ill., comments that by omitting the violent aspect of the Salome story, Regnault presents not only the charming theme of an oriental dancer, but also a sacriligeous image of Salome as heroine; discusses how this picture's critical reception and the uproar over its leaving France was colored by patriotic, antisemitic, and misogynistic overtones.
Chuji Ikegami. New History of World Art. Vol. 22, Period of Impressionism. Tokyo, 1993, pp. 433–34, ill. p. 434 and colorpl. 179.
Murielle Gagnebin. "Cranach et l'excès: Les aventures d'une table trop blanche." La Part de l'Oeil no. 9 (1993), p. 59, ill., erroneously locates it in Washington.
Gary Tinterow and Henri Loyrette. Origins of Impressionism. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, pp. 33, 324, 337, fig. 40, call the figure a "charming girl in Turkish slippers from Tangier".
John House. Renoir, Master Impressionist. Exh. cat., Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. Sydney, 1994, pp. 45–46, fig. 18.
Barbara Wright, ed. Correspondance d'Eugène Fromentin. Vol. 2, 1859–1876. [Paris], 1995, p. 1699 n. 2, notes that Ferdinand Humbert's "Dalila," exhibited at the 1873 Salon, was stylistically similar to this picture.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 487, ill.
Dianne W. Pitman. Bazille: Purity, Pose, and Painting in the 1860s. University Park, Pa., 1998, pp. 9, 11–12, 16–25, 28–30, 32, 46, 48, 233 n. 3, p. 234 nn. 16, 20, 23–24, 27–29, p. 235 nn. 36, 39, 43, 50, p. 236 n. 67, fig. 3, discusses its critical reception at the Salon of 1870.
Hollis Clayson. Paris in Despair: Art and Everyday Life under Siege (1870–71). Chicago, 2002, pp. 238, 251.
Hollis Clayson in "Henri Regnault's Wartime Orientalism." Orientalism's Interlocutors: Painting, Architecture, Photography. Ed. Jill Beaulieu and Mary Roberts. Durham, 2002, pp. 136, 148.
Caterina Y. Pierre. "'A New Formula for High Art': The Genesis and Reception of Marcello's 'Pythia'." Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 2 (Autumn 2003) [http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn03/73-autumn03/autumn03article/271-qa-new-formula-for-high-artq-the-genesis-and-reception-of-marcellos-pythia], states that the sculptor Marcello used the same model, called by her "Gypsy Marie," for a bust of a female figure (lost); notes similarities between this picture and Marcello's bronze "Pythia" (1870; Opéra Garnier, Paris) and suggests that Regnault was influenced by Marcello's etching of Salome; asserts that Regnault completed this picture in Morocco using a different model named Aïscha-Tchama, and that he enlarged the picture at the suggestion of Mariano Fortuny (see Hooper 1875).
Céline Eidenbenz in Helen Bieri Thomson and Céline Eidenbenz. Salomé: Danse et décadence. Exh. cat., Fondation Neumann. Gingins, Switzerland, 2003, p. 7.
Roger Benjamin. Orientalist Aesthetics: Art, Colonialism, and French North Africa, 1880–1930. Berkeley, 2003, pp. 25, 27.
Marc Gotlieb. "De Rome à Tanger: Cadre et trajectoire d'une formation à caractère subversif." Peut-on enseigner l'art? Ed. Fabrice Douar and Matthias Waschek. Paris, 2004, pp. 71–77, 84, fig. 4, calls it an improvised painting, which contributed to its controversial reception at the Salon of 1870; discusses the visual impact of the black frame chosen by Regnault.
Gary Tinterow and Asher Ethan Miller inThe Wrightsman Pictures. Ed. Everett Fahy. New York, 2005, p. 396, fig. 1.
Marc Gotlieb. "Legends of the Painter Hero: Remembering Henri Regnault." Nationalism and French Visual Culture, 1870–1914. Ed. June Hargrove and Neil McWilliam. Washington, 2005, pp. 103–4, 118, 121, 124 n. 3, fig. 1.
Atsuko Ogane. La Genèse de la danse de Salomé: L'"Appareil scientifique" et la symbolique polyvalente dans "Hérodias" de Flaubert. Tokyo, 2006, p. 7 n. 29, p. 173 n. 3, p. 174.
Marc Bochet. Salomé, du voile au dévoilé: Métamorphoses littéraires et artistiques d'une figure biblique. Paris, 2007, p. 41 nn. 3–4, pp. 83, 100.
Gary Tinterow inThe Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, p. 9.
Rebecca A. Rabinow inMasterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 158, 295–96, no. 147, ill. (color and black and white).
Peter Cooke. "Gustave Moreau's 'Salome': The Poetics and Politics of History Painting." Burlington Magazine 149 (August 2007), pp. 528–30, 532, 536, fig. 2, notes that Regnault drew from the influence of Horace Vernet's theory on biblical costume published in a memoir of 1848; cites the artist's "frivolous application of ethnographic Orientalism" and calls Gustave Moreau's "Salomé" (1874–76, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles) a riposte to it that reclaims the subject for idealist history painting.
Marc Gotlieb. "Figures of Sublimity in Orientalist Painting." Dialogues in Art History, from Mesopotamian to Modern: Readings for a New Century. Ed. Elizabeth Cropper. Washington, 2009, pp. 328–36, 340 nn. 64–65, p. 341 n. 80, fig. 7 (color).
Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel inManet, inventeur du Moderne. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2011, p. 284.
Sophie Barthélémy inLa Sulamite dévoilée: Genèse du Cantique des Cantiques de Gustave Moreau. Ed. Sophie Barthélémy et al. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. Montreuil, 2011, pp. 48, 71, fig. 37 (color).
Virginie Pouzet-Duzer. "L'audace du jaune." Romantisme no. 157 (3) (2012), pp. 65–73, fig. 14 and ill. on cover (color), proposes that the painting transformed the color yellow into a desirable color when it had previously held negative connotations; notes that Regnault was careful to light the painting from right to left at the Salon and that the painting came to have musical associations; suggests that the shockingly bright yellow used by the painter, later known as “Regnault yellow,” had an influence on fin-de-siècle taste in literature, art, and fashion for years to come.
Virginie Pouzet-Duzer. "Peinture, tissage, sonnets: Figures de Salomé." Le sonnet et les arts visuels: Dialogues, interactions, visibilité. Ed. Bénédicte Mathios. [Berlin], 2012, pp. 59, 62–66, analyzes the close relationship between the painting and Banville's poem; notes that Banville was a friend of Regnault's and that he saw the picture before its first exhibition; discusses the painting's development.
Samuel Montiège inBenjamin-Constant: Marvels and Mirages of Orientalism. Ed. Nathalie Bondil. Exh. cat., Musée des Augustins, Toulouse. Montreal, 2014, pp. 42, 76 [French ed., 2014], mentions that Benjamin-Constant's "Judith" (The Met, 59.185) was "certainly indebted to and directly influenced by" it.
Nathalie Bondil inBenjamin-Constant: Marvels and Mirages of Orientalism. Ed. Nathalie Bondil. Exh. cat., Musée des Augustins, Toulouse. Montreal, 2014, pp. 54, 60, 372, fig. 41 (color) [French ed., 2014], cites Benjamin-Constant's comments on it in Constant 1889.
Christine Peltre inBenjamin-Constant: Marvels and Mirages of Orientalism. Ed. Nathalie Bondil. Exh. cat., Musée des Augustins, Toulouse. Montreal, 2014, p. 103 [French ed., 2014].
Peter Cooke. Gustave Moreau: History Painting, Spirituality and Symbolism. New Haven, 2014, pp. 81, 84, 86, 209 n. 65, p. 210 n. 87, fig. 47, discusses it as the model against which Gustave Moreau reacted in producing his own version of the subject ("Salome," 1876, The Armand Hammer Collection, Los Angeles); states that Regnault trivialized the subject, citing Regnault's letter of October 1869 as proof of his use of the subject as mere pretext.
Colin B. Bailey. "How He Ruled Art." New York Review of Books 62 (December 3, 2015), p. 62, notes that it was one of the sensations of the Salon of 1870 and discusses the high price Durand-Ruel paid for it.
Marc Gotlieb. The Deaths of Henri Regnault. Chicago, 2016, pp. 5, 34, 56, 61, 66, 69–103, 108, 115, 120, 122–23, 140–41, 176, 182, 213, 218–19, 226, 229, 232, 234–37, 242–50, 260 nn. 7, 8, 15, p. 261 nn. 29, 36, p. 263 nn. 62, 72, p. 264 n. 75, p. 287 nn. 102, 103, p. 288 nn. 111, 114, 115, 116, 119, 128, figs. 31, 44–46, 48 (color, overall and details), 112 (on cover of "Henri Regnault" 1913), 123 (color, on cover of "Le Gaulois du dimanche," June 23, 1913), discusses at length the painting and its original frame, its model, provenance, exhibition history, and both popular and critical reception in 1870 and 1912, when it was sold to Knoedler; traces its artistic influence; reproduces caricatures of the painting.
Margaret MacNamidhe. "Review of Gotlieb 2016." Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 16 (Autumn 2017), ill. (color, on book cover) [https://doi.org/10.29411/ncaw.2017.16.2.7].
Stéphane Guégan inFortuny (1838–1874). Ed. Javier Barón. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2017, pp. 94–95, fig. 58 (color).
Aaron Slodounik. "Review of Gotlieb 2016." CAA.Reviews (December 11, 2017), ill. (color, on book cover) [http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/3058#.XMcRordKiUk], stresses that the content of the picture is both unambiguous and highly specific because of its title, taking issue with what he describes as Gotlieb's argument, in which the painting is a "powerful space for viewer's fantasies"; compares the sitter's highly specific physiognomy to that of figures in Courbet's paintings, whose models also spawned speculations about their relationship to the artist.
The model for this picture was Maria Latini, whom Regnault met in Rome. The painting was etched by Paul Rajon and engraved on wood by Jules Robert after an intermediary drawing by Albert Duvivier. An oil sketch on panel of the composition was sold at Christie's, London, on May 7, 1976 and a smaller watercolor version is in the collection of Lucile Audouy.
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