Héloïse
Order image © All images subject to copyright
Oil painting on panel of the head and upper chest of a girl with a fan collar. The girl looks up to upper right. She rests her left elbow on top of what appears to be a table top with a leg moulded in the form of a Corinthian corner. Her fingers are interlaced beneath her chin. A letter rests underneath her hands, on the edge of the table.
Four paintings of women's heads by Jean-Baptiste Greuze hang in the Tower Drawing Room. This one shows a young woman wearing a Van Dyck collar, which Greuze used in several other paintings. Greuze made many such heads as studies of people's expressions; they were not necessarily made in preparation for larger compositions.
The painting may however be connected to a work Greuze showed at the Salon in 1800 of a young girl getting ready to write a love letter. The expression on this woman's face, and the prominent letter resting on the edge of the table against which the woman must be kneeling, conveys the impression of absent love.
The painting's title refers to the 12th-century female scholar taught by the philosopher Peter Abelard. The two had a secret affair, and Héloïse bore him a son. Her uncle found out, Abelard was castrated and became a monk. Héloïse became a nun but the two former lovers began a correspondence that was both scholarly and passionate. The painting originally had a pendant thought to show Danaë, the mythological virgin, locked in a tower by her father, but seduced by Jupiter as a shower of gold.
Greuze was well-known for his sentimental genre scenes, portraits and studies of expressive heads (têtes d'expression), painting many such works in the later half of the 18th century. He was made an associate member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1755, but did not submit his reception piece until prompted 12 years later. For this piece, he tried to experiment with the genre of history painting, but without success and was received only as a painter of everyday subjects. After his work was received negatively at the Salon, he did not exhibit there until 1800. He exhibited elsewhere and publicized himself in the press. His work was widely collected and remained popular until the last few years of his life. The interest in Greuze resumed in the latter part of the 19th century; by the end of the century studies of girl's heads such as this made record prices. In his memoir of collecting, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild relates a story that he much admired a 'Head of a Girl' by Greuze in his father's collection. As a young boy, he used to imitate the portrait's pose for the amusement of his mother and his parent's guests (Michael Hall; Bric-a-Brac: A Rothschild Memoir of Collecting; Apollo; July 2007-August 2007; 50-77).
Phillippa Plock, 2011
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
450 x 391
Signature & date
not signed or dated
Inscriptions
58
Inscription
[verso, frame, chalk]
22
Inscription
[verso, frame, red chalk]
Labels
Tower Room
Right of fireplace (top)
Label
[verso, panel, ink]
Tower Room
Greuze Right fireplace
Label
[verso, frame, ink]
119
Label
[verso, round label, ink]
[G es?]
Label
[verso, panel, ink]
Provenance
- Acquired by Major General Sir John Hanbury (b.1782, d.1863) before 1836; by descent through the Bateman-Hanbury family, probably inherited by his nephew William Bateman-Hanbury 2nd Baron Bateman of Shobdon (b.1826, d.1901); acquired from the Bateman-Hanbury family by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (b.1839, d.1898); inherited by his sister Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); bequeathed to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1957.
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957
Bibliography
- John Smith; A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters; 9 vols; London; Smith and Son; 1829-1842; vol. 8, no. 105; giving the owner's name incorrectly
- Camille Mauclair; Jean-Baptiste Greuze ... (Catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre peint et dessine de J-B Greuze etabli par les soins de M J Martin avec la collaboration de M C Masson); Paris; [n. pub.]; 1905; p. 32, no. 467; giving the owner's name incorrectly
- Anita Brookner, French Pictures at Waddesdon, The Burlington Magazine, 101, 1959, 271-273; p. 271; with possible connection to 1800 painting
- Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; p. 234, ill., cat. no. 105
Subject person
- Abbess Héloïse, possibly pictured