Jupiter et les Corybantes, c. 1876
Ceiling mural Opera National, Paris
In Greek and Roman mythology, the god Saturn was warned that one of his offspring would overthrow him, so he ate his children at birth. To protect their son, his wife Ops took the infant Jupiter to the island of Crete to be raised by the Corybantes, who used the rhythm of their dancing and the clashing of their cymbals to disguise the baby’s cries so he would not be discovered by Saturn.
Baudry, Paul (La Roche-sur-Yon, 07–11–1828 - Paris, 17–01–1886)
The Legend of the centuries" in "Le Livre d'or de Victor Hugo", c. around 1883
Oil painting on Wood
Height: 55.5 cm, Width: 33.6 cm
Victor Hugo House - Hauteville House
Illustration for the poem from the collection of Victor Hugo, "The legend of centuries", II, I and corresponding to the passage of the poem, which it bears inscribed, the last line: "The look that came out of things and beings, Blessed waves , sacred groves, priest trees, Fixed himself more thoughtful, from moment to moment, On this woman with the venerable and charming brow; A long ray of love came to him from the abysses, From the shadow, the azure, the depths of the tops Of the flower, of the bird, of the silent rock. - And, pale, Eve felt that her side was moving. "The work illustrates the chapter devoted to" The Legend of the centuries (1st series) "in" The Victor Hugo's Golden Book "where it is reproduced in the inset boards between pages 196-197It appeared in the inaugural hanging of the Museum, painting room, on the first floor. More on this painting
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry (1828–1886)
Zenobia found by shepherds on the banks of the Araxe, c. 1850
Prix de Rome 1850, Paris, École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts.
Oil on canvas
Private collection
Zenobia was a daughter of King Mithridates of Armenia. At the same time, she was a wife of Rhadamistus.
Zenobia's father Mithridates reigned in Armenia until her husband Rhadamistus usurped the Armenian throne by a sudden invasion. Her husband destroyed her entire family. Rhadamistus killed both of Zenobia's parents, her mother being Rhadamistus' own sister. Zenobia's brothers were also killed by Rhadamistus just because they were crying over their parents' death.
After execution of her entire family Rhadamistus became king in 51 and she became his queen. Armenians revolted soon after and, with the Parthian support of prince Tiridates I, forced both to flee back to Iberia.
Swift horses were all that saved Rhadamistus. They carried him and his wife away. But she was pregnant. At first she endured the journey as best she could, for terror of her enemies and love of her husband. But the continuous galloping soon shook and jarred her so terribly that she begged to be rescued from the humiliation of captivity by an honorable death.
Rhadamistus stabbed his pregnant wife and let the stream carry her body away. Still alive, she was discovered by the shepherds. More on Zenobia
His talent first revealed itself as strictly academical, full of elegance and grace, but somewhat lacking originality. In the course of his residence in Italy Baudry derived strong inspiration from Italian art with the mannerism of Correggio, as was very evident in the two works he exhibited in the Salon of 1857, which were purchased for the Luxembourg: The Martyrdom of a Vestal Virgin (See below) and Fortune and the Young Child (See below).
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry (1828–1886)
Torment of Vestale
Oil on canvas
Private collection
In ancient Rome, the Vestals or Vestal Virgins were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. The college of the Vestals was regarded as fundamental to the continuance and security of Rome. Vestals were freed of the usual social obligations to marry and bear children and took a 30-year vow of chastity in order to devote themselves to the study and correct observance of state rituals that were forbidden to the colleges of male priests.
Allowing the sacred fire of Vesta to die out was a serious dereliction of duty. It suggested that the goddess had withdrawn her protection from the city. Vestals guilty of this offence were punished by a scourging or beating, which was carried out "in the dark and through a curtain to preserve their modesty". More on Vestal Virgin
Paul Baudry
Fortune and the Young Child
Around 1857
Oil on canvas
H. 194.0; L. 148.0 cm.
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay)
Paul Jacques Aime Baudry, 1828-1886
Diana Reposing
Oil on canvas
35.2 x 59.5 cms | 13 3/4 x 23 1/4 ins
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore | United States
The nude goddess, identified by the crescent moon in her hair and the bow and quiver at her side, reclines on a blue drapery in front of a recumbent stag in a wooded glade. An early inscription identifies this painting as a variant sketch for an overdoor in the hôtel of Achille Fould, the Minister of State. The hôtel, on the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, was acquired by the Duc d'Aumale in 1872, and its decor was transferred to the Château of Chantilly six years later. The overdoor, "Diane au repos," and another, "Venus jouant avec l'Amour," were both mounted in the Galerie des Cerfs. The actual overdoor is painted in "grisaille" unlike our sketch which is in naturalistic colors. In the overdoor the majestic stag is an integral part of the composition, whereas in this sketch he is barely discernible in the right background.
This composition illustrates the artist's practice of imparting to his traditional subjects an air of modishness or coquetry, that may have resulted from his occasional use of professional beauties as models. The figure of Diana reposing in the sketch and the overdoor bears a striking resemblance to Blanche D'Antigny, an actress who at the age of eighteen modeled for Baudry's famous "The Penitent Madeleine," (See below) painted about the same time and acquired by the State at the 1859 Salon for the Nantes Museum. More on this painting
Paul Baudry
The Resting Diana
Oil on canvas
56.5 x 74 cm (22 1/4 x 29 1/8 in.)
Private collection
Paul Baudry,
The Drunkenness of Noah, between 1828 and 1885,
Oil on canvas, copy after Michelangelo,
H. 186,5 ; L. 299,0 cm.,
Grand Palais (Orsay Museum)
Genesis 9:18–10:32; Bible passage (Revised Standard Version)
20 Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; 21and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. 22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him... More on this painting
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry (1828–1886)
Young Saint John the Baptist, c. 1860
Portrait of Countess Swieytowska's son
Oil on canvas
Height: 115.5 cm (45.4 in); Width: 81.8 cm (32.2 in)
Musée d'Orsay
Paul Jacques Aime Baudry, 1828-1886
La Madeleine pénitente/ The Penitent Magdalene
Oil on canvas
98.3 x 146 cms | 38 1/2 x 57 1/4 ins
Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nantes | France
A sinner, perhaps a courtesan, Mary Magdalen was a witness of Christ who renounced the pleasures of the flesh for a life of penance and contemplation. Penitent Magdalene or Penitent Magdalen refers to a post-biblical period in the life of Mary Magdalene, according to medieval legend.
According to the tenets of the 17th–century Catholic church, Mary Magdalene was an example of the repentant sinner and consequently a symbol of the Sacrament of Penance. According to legend, Mary led a dissolute life until her sister Martha persuaded her to listen to Jesus Christ. She became one of Christ's most devoted followers and he absolved her of her former sins. More on The Penitent Magdalen
Once only did he attempt an historical picture, Charlotte Corday after the assassination of Marat (1861) (See below); and returned by preference to the former class of subjects or to painting portraits of illustrious men of his day: Guizot, Charles Garnier, Edmond About.
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry (1828–1886)
L'Assassinat de Marat/ Charlotte Corday, c. 1860
Oil on canvas
Height: 203 cm (79.9 in); Width: 154 cm (60.6 in)
Nantes Museum of Arts
Charlotte Corday was a figure of the French Revolution. In 1793, she was executed by guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, who was in part responsible for the more radical course the Revolution had taken through his role as a politician and journalist. Marat had played a substantial role in the political purge of the Girondins, with whom Corday sympathized. His murder was depicted in the painting The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David, which shows Marat's dead body after Corday had stabbed him in his medicinal bath.
The works that crowned Baudry's reputation were his mural decorations, which show much imagination and a high artistic gift for color, as may be seen in the frescoes in the Paris Court of Cassation (See below), at the château de Chantilly, and some private residences the Hôtel Fould and Hôtel Paiva but, above all, in the decorations of the foyer of the Opera Garnier.
Baudry, Paul Jacques Aimé
Palais de Justice de Paris, Cour de Cassation; Glorification de la Loi/ Palace of Justice, Paris, Court of Cassation; Glorification of the Law, c. 1881; installed 1888
Ceiling of the courtroom of the first Civil Chamber
Jacques DeCaso Collection
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry (1828–1886)
Study for an Architectural Decoration, c. 1860s
Oil on canvas
27 x 16 in.
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Paul Baudry
The truth, c. around 1879
Oil on wood
H. 76.0; L. 50.0 cm.
Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay)
Truth emerging from the well, after Baudry: a nude female figure holding a mirror and seated on a well; at her feet, an infant carrying her clothes.
It’s not unusual to see allegorical paintings of Truth that depict her at or emerging from a well, particularly in the late-nineteenth century. Paul Baudry’s La Verité (1882, also in the collection of the Musée Anne-de-Beaujeu) features a Truth who sits placidly upon a well. More on this painting
Paul Baudry (French, 1828-1886)
An Allegory of Innocence
Oil on canvas
46¼ x 29½ in. (120 x 75 cm.)
Private collection
BAUDRY, PAUL-JACQUES-AIMÉ, La Roche-Sur-Yon, Vendée, 1828 - Paris, 1886
The pearl and the wave (Persian fable), c. 1862
Oil on canvas
83.5 x 178 cm
Museo Nacional del Prado.
This work, one of the most appreciated nudes in the Paris of the Second Empire, was one of the most outstanding in the Salon of 1863, where the artist exhibited it under the title La perle et la vague (Persian fable). In a letter to his friend Olivier Merson, dated May 1863, Baudry stated that he had at first thought of suggesting the feminine through the wave, but later it seemed too abstract and preferred to show the figure as a pearl in his jewelry box, so that the composition was related to the birth of Venus. The artist had already dealt with the female nude in other compositions in which, as in this case, the shell that can be seen on the right side of La perla y la ola appears.. The nude unfolds like a precious surface that evokes the pearly quality, inside the wave that is about to envelop it. The simile of a marriage between the sea and the woman. The arrangement of the nude in profile makes the successive convex curves of the arm, breast and hips very visible, separated by the concavities, these increasingly open, of the armpit, waist and ankle, as if the nude were unfolding in lines each time wider from head to toe, accompanying the sense of reading from left to right... (Text extracted from: Barón J., El legado Ramón de Errazu , Madrid : Museo Nacional del Prado , 2005, pp. 84-88). More on this painting
Paul Jacques Aime Baudry, 1828-1886
Reclining nude with rose
Oil on canvas
77.6 x 199 cm
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