Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009300A Eunuch's Dream
About the Artwork
This painting, inspired by Charles Montesquieu's Persian Letters (published in 1721), depicts a eunuch who wanted to marry a harem slave. He experienced a vision of her while smoking his opium pipe, but her little companion holding a knife dripping with blood reminds us that the eunuch's anatomy precludes the fulfillment of his dream. The outline of a hand next to the signature is a khamsa, a symbol used to ward off evil.
Inscriptions
Signed center left: Lecomte du Nouÿ / 1874
Provenance
1977: (Sale, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, April 28, 1977, lot 209, possibly sold to Noah L. and Muriel Butkin) Possibly 1977-1991: (Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin, Cleveland, Ohio, given by Muriel S. Butkin to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1991-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Exhibition history
Signs of Affection: Gifts Honoring the Museum's 75th Anniversary. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27, 1992-January 3, 1993). From Homer to the Harem: The Art of Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ. Dahesh Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (June 22-September 19, 2004). European Orientalists: From Delacroix to Kandinsky. Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium (October 15, 2010-January 9, 2011); Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, Germany (organizer) (January 29-May 1, 2011); Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille, Marseille, France (May 20-August 21, 2011).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ (French, 1842–1923)
- Date
- 1874
- Medium
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- Framed: 54 x 74.5 x 5.5 cm (21 1/4 x 29 5/16 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 39.3 x 65.4 cm (15 1/2 x 25 3/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of Mrs. Noah L. Butkin
- Accession no.
- 1991.173
More by Jean Jules Antoine Lecomte du Noüy in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009300
Powered by Art Trackers