Bernard d'Agesci (French, 1756–1829)
Lady Reading the Letters of Heloise and Abelard
INV-1338
Bernard d'Agesci (French, 1756–1829)c. 1780
Lady Reading the Letters of Heloise and Abelard
Bernard d'Agesci (French, 1756–1829) →18th Centurygenre paintingoil on canvasfrench
Date
c. 1780
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
81.3 × 64.8 cm (32 × 25 1/2 in.); Framed: 105.5 × 89.9 × 11.5 cm (41 1/2 × 35 3/8 × 4 1/2 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Mrs. Harold T. Martin Fund; Lacy Armour Endowment; Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
This painting depicts a young woman lost in reverie after reading the letters of the ill-fated medieval lovers Heloise and Abelard. The objects on the table beside her—a letter, a sheet of music, and a book of erotic poetry—hint at a life of leisure and a susceptibility to love. In this early picture, Auguste Bernard drew upon history paintings by Peter Paul Rubens and Charles Le Brun, as well as Parisian traditions of genre painting and portraiture pioneered by Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Bernard worked in Paris in the early 1780s and studied in Italy for several years. Upon his return to Paris, he found his career frustrated by the French Revolution and the emergent fashion for the more austere Neoclassical style.
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