Mordecai (1892)

Jean-Jules Antoine Lecomte du Noüy: Mordecai, second in power to the King

The present work depicts Mordecai, from the Book of Esther. Mordecai was the adoptive father of Esther, the beautiful Jewess who became queen to the king Ahasuerus. Mordecai held an office in the king's court. After Esther was chosen as queen, he exposed a plot to assassinate the king. Later, Haman the Agagite was appointed to the highest position in the kingdom, but Mordecai refused to bow to him. Haman became so infuriated that he devised a plan to destroy not only Mordecai, but all of the Judeans in the empire. The king was unaware of the nationality of his beloved queen and gave Haman the authority to execute his plan. Haman had letters sent to every governor of every province that on a certain day they would coordinate the total annihilation of every Judean man, woman and child. Mordecai learned of this evil plan and notified Esther of Haman’s plot. Esther revealed the plot to the king and Haman was hanged and the plot stopped.

The subject is unusual for Lecomte du Noüy, who is primarily known for his Orientalist subjects. Although he exhibited religious and historical paintings at the Salon beginning in 1863, after 1872 when Lecomte du Noüy made an extended trip to Greece, Egypt, Turkey and Asia Minor, Orientalist themes dominated his oeuvre. Even among his religious compositions, Jewish themes were rare. He did complete an image of Judith (1875), depicting the profile of a woman in exotic dress and the traditional head-dress worn by married women from Bethlehem, as well as a composition Rabbis Commenting on the Bible on Saturday (1882). Additionally, Lecomte du Noüy’s first wife was the grand-daughter of Adolphe Crémieux, the former French Minister of Justice who withdrew from political office to become president of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in the 1860s. Lecomte du Noüy painted a portrait of Crémieux (1878), now at the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme in Paris. [Schiller and Bodo]

The White Slave (1888)

Jean-Jules Antoine Lecomte du Noüy: The White Slave

The White Slave (1888) also achieved great renown, gracing the cover of a contemporary edition of Victor Hugo's Les Orientales and Gerard de Nerval's Voyage en Orient. The subject, one of the Georgian or Circassian concubines who on the basis of race was most highly prized in the Ottoman Empire, is rendered as an opulent object of consumption. The luxurious fabrics and succulent foods that surround her, the abstracted expression with which she contemplates the plumes of smoke curving upward from her lips, and her opaline, nearly boneless body present an impossible dream of leisure and pleasure. Although the composition is clearly indebted to the odalisques of Ingres and Gérôme, its sultry, seductive radiance bears an idiosyncratic stamp. [Art Renewal Center]

The Gaulish Coastguards (1888)

Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Noüy: The Gaulish Coastguards

The Citrus Seller (1878)

Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Noüy: The Citrus Seller

Honeymoon in Venice (1875)

Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ: Honeymoon in Venice

The Eunuch's Dream (1874)

Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Noüy: The Eunuch's Dream

A Philosopher Without Knowing It (1873)

Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Noüy: A Philosopher Without Knowing It

The Supper at Beaucaire (1869)

Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ: The Supper at Beaucaire

This scene depicts an event that occurred at the beginning of Bonaparte's career, when he was still a young captain. He was responsible for conveying powder intended for soldiers of the Army of Italy, in the middle of the federalist insurrection of Midi. On 28 July 1793, he arrived in Beaucaire at the house of Mr. Renaudet, pharmacist, and at night he dined at an inn with four merchants who had come to a fair. It was after this meal he wrote a dialogue text entitled The Supper at Beaucaire, in which he made a Republican profession of faith, trying to convince his interlocutors the need of the Revolution. [L'Histoire par l'Image]

The Summoning of Neptune (1866)

 

Jean-Jules Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ: The Summoning of Neptune

The painter Lecomte du Nouÿ primarily painted Orientalist and historical (mainly Classical Greco-Roman) scenes. His style was strongly influenced by Gleyre and Gérôme.