Orpheus and Eurydice

Object Details

Title:

Orpheus and Eurydice

Artist/Maker:

Jean Raoux (French, 1677 - 1734)

Culture:

French

Date:

about 1709

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Object Number:

73.PA.153

Dimensions:

205.7 × 203.2 cm (81 × 80 in.)

Credit Line:

Gift of William P. Garred

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In the center of the picture, Orpheus leads his wife, Eurydice, out of Hades after having won her release by his enchanting violin playing. Pluto, ruler of Hades, and his wife Proserpine observe their departure from the upper left. The three Fates ominously spin the future at the left, foreshadowing Orpheus's eventual downfall. He broke the one condition that Proserpine had set for Eurydice's return to earth: he could not look at her until they had left the netherworld. On reaching earthly light, Orpheus could not resist a glimpse, and Eurydice vanished forever.

Jean Raoux painted the scene in a highly theatrical manner, spotlighting the figures and arranging them as if on a stage. The action seems especially compressed because the canvas was cut down on all sides early in the twentieth century.

Provenance
about 1709

Possibly Palazzo Giustinian-Lolin (Venice, Italy), possibly commissioned from the artist, about 1709.

- 1883

Beurdeley [sold, Chevallier Beurdeley sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 23, 1883, lot 353.]

- 1897

Possibly Private Collection [sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 26, 1897, lot 1.]

- 1904

Private Collection [sold, Garnaud, Paris, June 16, 1904, lot 25.]

- 1970

Beasly (Los Angeles, California), sold to M. J. L. Bordeau, September 1970.

1970 -

M. J. L. Bordeau

- 1973

Dr. William P. Garred (Onawa, Iowa), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1973.

Exhibitions
Exposition Jean Raoux (November 27, 2009 to April 11, 2010)
  • Musée Fabre (Montpellier), November 27, 2009 to April 11, 2010
Bibliography

Hôtel Drouot. Catalogue des objets d'art et d'ameublement...dépendant de la collection de feu M. Beurdeley père. April 23-25, 1883, p. 89, lot 353.

Hôtel Drouot, Paris. Très belles décorations de salons de Jean Raoux et de P.-V. Galland, tableaux, magnifique orfèverie de table [...] May 26, 1897, p. 3, lot 1.

Hôtel Drouot. Catalogue de tableaux anciens, dessins et miniatures...importante décoration par Raoux. June 16, 1904, p. 18, lot 25.

Fredericksen, Burton B. "Recent Gifts of Paintings." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 3 (1976), pp. 121-22, fig. 16.

Jaffé, David. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997), p. 102, ill.

Zuffi, Stefano. Amore ed erotismo (Milan: Electa, 2008), p. 335, ill.

Zeder, Olivier, et al. Jean Raoux, 1677-1734: un peintre sous la Régence, exh. cat. (Montpellier: Musée Fabre, with Somogy Éditions d'Art, 2009), pp. 84-85, no. 3, ill.

Alegret, Célia. "Jean Raoux, un peintre sous la Régence." In Jean Raoux, 1677-1734: un peintre sous la Régence, exh. cat. (Montpellier: Musée Fabre, with Somogy Éditions d'Art, 2009), p. 22.

Heck, Michèle-Caroline. "Raoux: entre grand genre et petit goût." In Jean Raoux, 1677-1734: un peintre sous la Régence, exh. cat. (Montpellier: Musée Fabre, with Somogy Éditions d'Art, 2009), p. 41.

Zeder, Olivier. "Le 'portique' de Raoux au palais Giustiniani-Lolin." In Jean Raoux, 1677-1734: un peintre sous la Régence, exh. cat. (Montpellier: Musée Fabre, with Somogy Éditions d'Art, 2009), p. 51.

Jackall, Yuriko. "Jean Raoux, 1677-1734." Eighteenth-Century Studies 44, no. 1 (Fall 2010), pp. 104-11.

Zuffi, Stefano. Love and the Erotic in Art. Stephen Sartarelli, trans. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2010), p. 335, ill.

Gressel, Dennis, and Karl-Heinz Pridik. Ovid: Metamorphosen (Stuttgart and Leipzig: Ernst Klett Verlag, 2011), p. 81, ill.