1863
Huile sur toile
125 x 125 cm - 49 1/4 x 49 1/4 in.
Signé en bas à droite : copié par F. Bazille
Beaune-la-Rolande, Eglise paroissiale, France -
Dernière mise à jour : 2022-04-10 15:55:24
Référence : MSb-2
Copié par l’artiste d’après Véronèse au musée Fabre - Famille de l’artiste - Don de Gaston Bazille, père de l’artiste, à l’église de Beaune-la-Rolande (Loiret) en 1871 - Beaune-la-Rolande, église paroissiale.
Paris, galerie Wildenstein, 1950, n° 67 - Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 7, repr. p. 40 - Montpellier, New York, 1992-1993, n° 52, repr. p. 147 - Paris, musée Marmottan Monet, 2003-2004, cat. 1, repr. p. 19 - Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 13, repr. p. 225 [Les références sont du catalogue en français] - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné numérique, 2022, n° 2.
Poulain, Bazille et ses amis, 1932, cité p. 220 comme copie de Véronèse [n.n.] - Gillet, Le Trésor des musées de province, 1935, p. 243 - Sarraute, Catalogue de l'œuvre de Frédéric Bazille, 1948, n° 54, pp. 95, 117 [Thèse du musée du Louvre non publiée] - Claparède, "Le souvenir de Frédéric Bazille à Montpellier", Cat. exp. galerie Wildenstein, Paris, 1950 (n.p.) - Daulte, Bazille et son temps, 1952, n° 59, pp. 128, 191 [Thèse dirigée par Gaston Poulain] - Marandel, Cat. exp. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 7, repr. p. 40 - Daulte, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, 1992, n° 65, pp. 122, 183 [Réédition de 1952 avec photos en couleur] - Michel, Bazille, 1992, p. 90 - Pitman, Cat. exp. Montpellier, New York, 1992-1993, n° 52, p. 147 - Bajou, Frédéric Bazille, 1993, pp. 62, 176 - Schulman, Frédédic Bazille : Catalogue raisonné, 1995, n° 2, repr. p. 104 - Hilaire, Jones, Perrin, Cat. exp. Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 13, repr. p. 225 [Les références sont du catalogue en français].
The story of the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine is well known. It was painted in the Fabre Museum after Veronese's work, made around 1560-1565 which was part of the famous collection of the Marquis de Gerini in Florence. For Bajou [Bajou, 1993, p. 62], Bazille's painting would have been done in 1863, but the catalogue of the 2016-2017 Bazille exhibition holds the date of 1864. The painting was bequeathed to the museum by François-Xavier Fabre in 1837. After the death of his son Frédéric, this painting was given by Gaston Bazille, the artist's father, to the church of Beaune-la-Rolande (Loiret).
In addition to the Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine, we know from his correspondence that Bazille made a copy of a painting by Rubens, a work that has now disappeared.
As Sarraute says, "Bazille still accommodates himself here very well to the teachings of the museum" [Sarraute, 1948, n° 54, p. 117]. Indeed, the simplification of the forms makes one think of a school work that bears no resemblance to the painter's future paintings. "Despite religious emotion", writes Augustin Fliche, "the smiling grace of the toddler, the aristocratic profile of the saint enhanced by the sumptuousness of her hair and the richness of her costume, the tenderized simplicity of the virgin, the expression at once rough and kind of the adoptive father, spread an intimate and gentle charm" [Fliche, Les villes d'art célèbres, Paris, 1935].
This work is generally dated 1863. In the notice of the 2016-2017 exhibition catalogue [P. 225], Hilaire nevertheless postpones it to the following year.
Veronese was also copied by Cézanne, Fantin-Latour, Manet and Berthe Morisot.
