| |
Édouard Baldus
After Bartlomé Esteban Murillo. Virgin and Child
1841
Oil on canvas
18-1/4 x 15 ins (46.4 x 38.1 cm)
Heritage Auctions
9 December 2015, European Art Signature Auction - Dallas #5229, LOT #66038
LL/63090
Before he found his métier around 1848 as an architectural and landscape photographer-one who achieved great distinction for his daring compositions, tendency toward abstraction, and experimental techniques resulting in images of great clarity, beauty and scale-Edouard-Denis Baldus began his artistic career in France as a painter. This sensitive copy after Murillo's Virgin and Child composition is an rare example of Baldus' skill as a painter. In private correspondence of September 8, 2014, Baldus historian Malcolm Daniel noted, prior to learning of the present work, "In all my research, I was able to find only a single surviving, identified painting by Baldus, another "Virgin and Child," this one a copy after Murillo, painted on commission for the state and placed in the Church of Saint-Mamert in Gard, in the south of France. Baldus submitted two paintings entitled "La Vièrge et l'Enfant Jésus" to the Salon of 1841, both of which were rejected. One was 95 x 70 cm.; the other was 105 x 80 cm." Neither aligns with the present work, which must be considered a new discovery.
| |
LuminousLint 
@LuminousLint