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Sweet Melancholy
About the Artwork
The chair, brazier, table, and the setting all show Vien's interest in bringing archaeological accuracy to a new level of precision. Yet his delicate handling and graceful palette derive squarely from 18th-century French painting. The gesture of the melancholic figure, with her head on her hand, has roots going back to the Renaissance. Nonetheless, the painting has a wistful rather than tragic tone. Indeed, images of women in interiors, contemplating a letter with longing or sadness, derive from earlier Dutch paintings of daily life, here transformed into an ancient context.
Inscriptions
Signed lower right: "jos. m. vien / 1756"
Exhibition history
More Light. Europe Around 1770. Art and Enlightenment. Städel Museum, Franfurt am Main, Germany (August 22, 1999-January 9, 2000). A Voluptuous Taste: French Painting in the Age of Madame de Pompadour. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, Tours, France (October 11, 2008-January 12, 2009); Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (organizer) (February 7-May 17, 2009).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Joseph-Marie Vien (French, 1716–1809)
- Date
- 1756
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 86.4 x 76.2 x 6.5 cm (34 x 30 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 68 x 55 cm (26 3/4 x 21 5/8 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Accession no.
- 1996.1
Provenance
Probably from 1757: Madame Marie-Thérèse Geoffrin [1699-1777], Paris, France c. 1765: Jean Louis Antoine le Vaillant de Damery, Chevalier de l’Ordre Royal Militaire de St-Louis [1723-1803] Until 1774: Comte Jean-Baptiste Dubarry [1723-1794], Toulouse, France Nov. 21, 1774: (Sale: Jean-Pierre-Baptiste Le Brun and Pierre Remy, Paris, Dubarry sale, Nov. 21, 1774, no. 93, probably bought in) 1774-: (Pierre Remy, Paris, France) Until 1776: Louis François, 6th Prince de Conti [1717-1776], Paris, France April 17, 1777: (Sale: Pierre Remy, Paris, France, Prince de Conti sale, April 17, 1777, no. 732, sold to Quenet) 1777-: Quenet, Paris, France Until 1818: Jean Paul André des Rasins, Marquis de Saint-Marc [1723-1818], Paris, France, by descent to his daughter, Marie de la Roze Probably 1818 - 1859: Marie de la Roze Feb. 23, 1859: (Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Marquis de Saint-Marc sale, Paris, Feb. 23, 1859, no. 17) 1955-1980: (Wildenstein & Company, New York, NY, sold to a private collector, UK) 1980 - probably 1995: Private noble collection, UK, sold to Danny Katz and Simon Dickinson through William Thuillier 1995: (William Thuillier, Paris, France, sold to Danny Katz and Simon Dickinson) 1995: (Danny Katz and Simon Dickinson, London, the latter bought out by the former) 1995: Danny Katz, London, sold to Emmanuel Moatti and Jack Kilgore 1995-1996: (Emmanuel Moatti and Jack Kilgore, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1996-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
More by Joseph-Marie Vien in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009263
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