Henri-Frédéric Schopin (18041880 - Bathing Virginie

Henri-Frédéric Schopin (1804, Lübeck - 1880, Montigny-sur-Loing).
Bathing Virginie.
1843-1844.
Oil on canvas.
H: 61.5 ; W: 50.5 cm.


Exhibition: Salon des artistes Vivants, Paris, 1844, no. 1615: "Virginie au bain".

Provenance: Charles Philippe Amédée de Narbonne-Lara collection; his sale, Paris, Hôtel des ventes mobilières, rue des Jeûneurs no. 42 (Ridel), March 24, 1851, no. 54: "Virginie au bain".

During the 1840s, Henri-Frédéric Schopin executed a series of eight paintings based on the story of Paul et Virginie, a novel by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre published in 1788. Virginie au bain, was exhibited at the 1844 Salon, under number 1643[1]. The painting follows Paul et Virginie égarés and Les Adieux, the first paintings in the cycle exhibited at the previous Salon. Unusually for a small-format genre scene, the 1844 Salon booklet describes Virginie au bain with an excerpt from Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's novel.

The scene is thus minutely described:

"She made her way, in the moonlight, to the fountain; she saw the spring, which, despite the dryness, still flowed in silver threads down the brown sides of the rock. A thousand pleasant memories came to mind. She remembers how, as a child, her mother and Marguerite used to bathe her with Paul in this very spot, and how Paul, reserving the bath for her alone, had dug out the bed, covered the bottom with sand, and sowed the banks with aromatic herbs. She glimpses in the water, on her bare arms and bosom, the reflections of the two palm trees planted at her and her brother's birth, which intertwine their green twigs and young coconuts above her head. She thinks of Paul's friendship, sweeter than perfumes, purer than fountain water, stronger than united palms; and she sighs."[2]

Virginie au bain and the first two paintings in the cycle, exhibited at the Salon of 1843, were quickly destined to be engraved, given their popularity and commercial potential. Jean-Alexandre Allais was entrusted with the black-style interpretation. Allais chose to exhibit a single engraving from Schopin's cycle at the 1845 Salon. This was his Virginie au bain, renamed Bain de Virginie under number 2222[3]. The work resurfaced when the Count de Narbonne's collection was dispersed in 1851. It can be identified under catalog number 54[4], entitled Virginie au bain. The subject is typical of the Romantic period's vogue for Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's work, a vogue already evident in the second half of the 18th century. The praise for a simple life, as close as possible to the luxuriant nature of the Île de France, was now coupled with a fantasized exoticism. With this subject, painters were able to forcefully display the picturesque details and local color so prized by enthusiasts in the 1830s. The ogive frame, present on all the other paintings in Schopin's cycle illustrating this novel, is finally in keeping with the historicist tradition inherited from troubadour art, at its height in the 1840s. Henri-Frédéric Schopin, born in Germany in 1804 to French parents, was a pupil of Antoine-Jean Gros before winning the second Prix de Rome in 1830, and the first in 1831. He made a remarkable debut at the Salon, exhibiting powerful, dramatic history paintings. Nevertheless, he developed a liking for genre painting, with a precise, refined touch, depicting several scenes from novels such as Manon Lescaut, Les Mystères de Paris and Paul et Virginie.

[1] Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants, exposés au musée royal le 15 mars 1844, Vichon, fils et Successeur de Mme V e Ballard, p. 200

[2] Idem

[3] Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants, exposés au musée royal le 15 mars 1845, Vichon, fils et Successeur de Mme V e Ballard, p. 274.

[4] Catalogue d'une précieuse collection de tableaux modernes, et d'aquarelles, et de quelques tableaux anciens, formant le cabinet de M. le Comte de N*** [Narbonne]…, imp. de Maulde et Renou, p. 10.