Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009302On a Terrace
About the Artwork
Trained as a printmaker and book illustrator, Meissonier specialized in small paintings depicting scenes from French history and literature. This painting on wood panel depicts a man dressed like a character from The Three Musketeers (published in 1844) by Alexandre Dumas père. Such paintings, admired for their technical virtuosity and romantic subjects, were immensely popular. Meissonier also painted contemporary military subjects and themes and became an arch-foe of the Realist painter Gustave Courbet.
Inscriptions
Signed lower right: "EMeissonier 1867 [EM in monogram]
Provenance
Ernest Secrétan [1836-1899], Paris, France (Georges Petit Gallery, Paris, France, March 15, 1908, sold to to F. F. van der Doucht, Brussels, Belgium, according to Knoedler sale book no. 7, p. 270, 15 March 1908). by 1893: (E. Le Roy & Co., by 1893, according to exh. cat., Georges Petit, 1893). (Le Roy consigned it to Knoedler & Co., Paris, France, stock no. 8878a.) 1897-1899: (Knoedler & Co., New York, NY, March 15, 1899, sold to Samuel L. Bronson) 1899-1901: Samuel L. Bronson [1834-1917] New Haven, CT 1901-1908: (Bought back by Knoedler, 8 May 1901 (stock number 9444) and sold 10 March 1908 to Thomas Henry Burchell) 1908-1910: Thomas Henry Burchell [-1942] New York, NY, sold it back to Knoedler, November 3, 1910 (stock number 12199). 1910-1911: (Knoedler Gallery, New York, NY, April 15, 1911, sold to Frederick Gehring) 1986: Clara Louise Gehring Bickford [1903-1985] Cleveland, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1986-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review for 1986. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-March 15, 1987). Ernest Meissonier: Rétrospective. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 69001 Lyon, France (organizer) (March 25-June 27, 1993).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Ernest Meissonier (French, 1815–1891)
- Date
- 1867
- Medium
- oil on wood panel
- Dimensions
- Framed: 50.5 x 40 x 8 cm (19 7/8 x 15 3/4 x 3 1/8 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Bequest of Clara Louise Gehring Bickford
- Accession no.
- 1986.68
More by Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009302
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