Jean Louis Victor Viger de Vigneau (Argentan, 1819 - Paris, 1879), The Death of Cleopatra

Jean Louis Victor Viger de Vigneau (Argentan, 1819 - Paris, 1879) The Death of Cleopatra Oil on panel, 21 x 28 cm With frame, 34 x 39 cm Signed lower right "H. Viger. D." Born in Argentan, Normandy, into a family of humble origins, Viger de Vigneau was introduced to painting at a very young age due to his precocious and outstanding talent, attending the school of graphic arts founded in Rouen by Raymond Quinsac Monvoisin, a student of the renowned Pierre Narcisse Guerin; the French painter's artistic training continued in the popular Parisian studios of painters Paul Delaroche, Martin Drolling, and Henri Lehman. Thanks to his multifaceted education, the artist developed a highly personal style from a young age, which aimed not at slavish emulation but at the astute reinterpretation of the models of the great masters of mid-19th-century French academicism. The artist's works, from the 1840s onwards, were met with an extremely positive reception in Paris and were acquired by the aristocracy and the wealthiest members of the rising bourgeoisie of the time. The reviews of the works exhibited at the Salon, an event in which Jean Louis Victor Viger de Vigneau was a constant presence from 1845 onwards, were also highly positive. The great appreciation of his contemporaries materialized in 1850, with his appointment as general secretary of the committee of artists of Paris. From 1859 onwards, the painter received numerous commissions, including that for the cartoons for the three monumental stained-glass windows of the choir of the Parisian church of Saint-Leu, depicting Christ and the prophets Moses and Elijah. From the early 1860s onwards, the artist worked directly for Napoleon III, creating various portraits and a series of paintings dedicated to the reconstruction of the history of the imperial family. The artist had been hosted by Princess Eugenie, the emperor's consort, at the Château de Malmaison, where he was commissioned to fresco the main hall. Upon his death in 1879, his friend, the poet Emile Bertin, dedicated a composition to him, published the following year in the miscellany Parnasse: "His work will remain, Viger! the great pages that you were able to retrace, and your charming panels, your vivid portraits will live through the centuries, sustained, protected, and consecrated by time." The renowned art critic Deschamps also spoke favorably of Viger's work, in an article commemorating his figure in 1879, praising the painter of Norman origins for his ability to magnificently represent the most powerful figures of the empire without sacrificing a lenticular realism. In this painting, perfectly in line with the painting of the great French masters of the mid-nineteenth century, first of all Courbet, the Egyptian queen is represented nude, in an extremely sensual pose, lying on a soft red damask couch. The agile and rapid brushstrokes, as well as the rendering of the shininess and transparency of the fabrics, highlight the extraordinary technical skill of the artist, who is able to give maximum emphasis to the intriguing female figure. Female subjects of mythological character reappear frequently in Viger's entire pictorial corpus, as evidenced by Flora and Zephyr, a painting commissioned by Napoleon III whose location is now unknown (the work is currently only known through historical photographs).