Berenice Reproaching Ptolemy

1802

Jean-Joseph Taillasson French, 1745-1809

On View

Era of Revolution, Level 3, South Wing

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About the Artwork

This impressively scaled, intricately plotted composition by Jean-Joseph Taillasson depicts an incident from the life of Ptolemy XI, the Greek ruler of Egypt in the first century CE. Partial to gambling, Ptolemy continued to indulge his passion even as he judged lawbreakers. With her dramatic gesture toward the gaming table, his daughter Berenice criticizes this inappropriate behavior and points out that life-or-death decisions deserve undivided attention. The crowds behind her look on in amazement at her bravery. Taillasson introduced numerous Egyptian motifs into this work — such as the sphynxes that support the gambling table — that reflect the influence of Napoleon Bonaparte ’s recent campaign in North Africa. The painting’s inherent endorsement of just governing practices would have resonated with contemporary French viewers, many of whom would have had vivid memories of the French Revolution and the royal and aristocratic excesses that preceded it.

Title Berenice Reproaching Ptolemy

Artwork Date 1802

Artist Jean-Joseph Taillasson

Life Dates 1745-1809

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. French

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 61 1/2 × 76 5/8 inches (156.2 × 194.6 cm) Framed: 71 1/2 × 87 5/8 × 4 3/4 inches (181.6 × 222.6 × 12.1 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Painting

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Ralph Harman Booth Bequest Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 75.87

Markings

Signed Signed, lower left: Taillasson

Provenance

1975, La Sirène, 60 rue Blanche (Paris, France);
1975, (Jacques Fischer, Paris, France);
1975-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Exh. cat., Salon. Paris, 1802, no. 270.

Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure, et lithographie des artistes vivants exposés au Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées. Paris, 1802, p. 55, no. 270.

Landon, C.P. Annales du Musée et de l'école des beaux-arts, vol. 6. Paris, 1804, p. 43.

Bulletin of the DIA 55, no. 1: Annual Report (1976): pp. 12, 34 (fig. 24).

"Principales acquisitions des musées en 1977." La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité: supplement to Gazette des beaux-arts, no.1310 (March 1978): p. 50, no. 225 (ill.).

The Figure in 19th Century French Painting. Exh. cat., Flint Institute of Arts. Flint, 1978, pp. 16-17, cat. 1 (ill.).

Bulletin of the DIA 62, no. 2: Annual Report (1985): p. 39 (fig. 26).

La peinture à Bordeaux 1750-1800. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts. Bordeaux, 1989, pp. 322-323, cat. 124, (pl. 23).

Les Bérénices textes et figures. Exh. cat., Musée National des Granges de Port-Royal. Paris, 1992, pp. 52-53 (fig. 45).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Jean-Joseph Taillasson, Berenice Reproaching Ptolemy, 1802, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Ralph Harman Booth Bequest Fund, 75.87.