Tableau d'histoire: the Cupid caricature (July 1875)

Overview

The tableau d'histoire of 23 July 1875 is a joke painting: a group caricature of her young men in Nice, painted in a day. It shows Godard as Cupid, the head of Saëtone, the profile of Danis, a butterfly on a tower, and other figures, on a blue sky with clouds. Marie ends it "Plaisanterie à part cette caricature est charmante. ... Ce me sera un souvenir amusant." (037.0386). It belongs with the oil caricatures of the Nice circle she made that summer and autumn (see also La grande caricature and the caricature of Smirnoff).

Description by Marie

23 July 1875: "Au lieu de sortir je peins, un tableau d'histoire. Sur un fond bleu azuré et nuages. Godard habillé de bleu (selon sa coutume), col et manchettes d'un blanc éclatant, cravate rouge, bas rouges et blancs, tenant d'une main une rose, de l'autre un arc et une flèche, il se tient sur un pied. Il a un carquois et deux petites ailes roses." (037.0383). "Il est si ressemblant que je ris tout en le fabriquant. Tout à fait cet air effrayé et cette croupe proéminente..." At the left corner is the head of Saëtone, red and russet, with pink and russet wings and his monocle; "Fiouloulou" with bat's wings, a floating monocle and a pen behind his ear -- so exact that the Sapogenikoffs cried "ce n'est pas une caricature mais c'est du talent" (037.0384). At lower right a tower from whose battlements a many-coloured butterfly with a man's head seen from behind and four snail horns emerges, a white heart on the tower inscribed "La tour, prends garde !"; below, two feet and a black tail. At lower left a prickly pear with a profile behind it -- she meant Danis, but "il n'y a presque aucune ressemblance" (037.0385). "Désiré et Galula sont parfaits, et Saëtone passable" (037.0386).

What it means

Cupid shooting arrows on a sky of clouds is the classical subject of a "tableau d'histoire", turned into a roll of Nice dandies. The "Tour" with a heart on it, "La tour, prends garde !" and a butterfly with horns looks aimed at the Tour Audiffret and its young heir (Émile d'Audiffret), but Marie does not say so and the reading is only a guess. Neither the medium nor the support is stated (in September she speaks of her oil caricatures, 043.0021), nor where it hung; the picture is not identified with any number in the 1885 catalogue.

References in Diary

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Sources