No.22737
Owing to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature.[3] He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well; the city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities. His writing influenced many famous writers, including the novelists Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Jack Kerouac, and Henry James, filmmakers Akira Kurosawa and Eric Rohmer as well as important philosophers such as Friedrich Engels. Many of Balzac's works have been made into films, and they continue to inspire other writers.
No.22738
>>22737I did not expect to get a history lesson on the background of that character's name. Thanks, this was interesting.
No.22741
Charles-Joseph Natoire, Adam et Ève chassés du Paradis terrestre/The Expulsion from Paradise, 1740
"This picture must have been intended by Natoire as a tribute to Le Moyne. It was a pendant to a painting by Le Moyne, depicting Adam receiving the forbidden fruit from Eve in the Garden of Eden (private collection). Natoire shared with Le Moyne a predilection for the nude, here depicting with care the rosy and sensual body of the disappointed Eve, a tear glistening on her cheek."
Provenance
Pierre Charles de Villette, marquis de Villette (by 1755–65; his estate sale, Paris, April 8, 1765, no. 32, for 332 livres); [Pierre Joseph Lafontaine, until 1798; his sale, Paillet, Paris, February 22, 1798, no. 132, for 200 frs to Renard]; [Miville-Krug, Basel, until 1846; sold to Balzac]; Honoré de Balzac, Paris (1846–d. 1850; inv., 1848); his widow, Eve Hanska de Balzac, Paris (1850–d. 1882; anonymous sale, Hotel des Ventes, Brussels, April 25, 1882, no. 13); [Eugène Fischhof, Paris, until 1913; sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 14, 1913, no. 33, for Fr 1,900]; Lizé, Rouen; sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 20, 1985, no. 38, for Fr 820,000; [Stair Sainty Matthiesen, New York, until 1987; sold to MMA]
No.22743
"Throughout the
Comédie humaine, begun long before he first saw Natoire’s
The Expulsion from Paradise, Balzac frequently alluded to religious works of art. Yves Gagneux found that, of the one hundred masterpieces mentioned by Balzac in his novels, forty are biblical paintings created by such artists as Raphael, Titian, and Murillo.15 Addressing a fascination with the liminal realm between mortality and immortality, Balzac conjured up works of art that illuminate the human spirit as it undergoes a transformation. He described, for example, the apotheosis of the eponymous figure in Domenichino’s
Communion of Saint Jerome (Vatican Museums), the mystical glow surrounding Christ as he ascends into the paradisiacal realm of Raphael’s
Transfiguration (Vatican Museums),16 and the youthful splendor of the Virgin Mary as she receives the gift of eternal life in Titian’s
Assumption of the Virgin (Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice).17 The story of Adam and Eve’s spiritual transformations played a role in at least two of Balzac’s works.
…
Therefore, it is not surprising that Balzac and Hanska were charmed by Natoire’s rendering of Adam and Eve. When the writer returned to Paris in late May 1846 after traveling with Hanska, he immediately commenced negotiations to buy
The Expulsion from Paradise from MivilleKrug. In a letter to Hanska dated May 30, he voiced his intentions: “You will have [the] Adam and Eve; it will not be said that my desires alone will be fulfilled.”28 By June 10, he had settled on a price, and five days later the painting was delivered.29"
Carol Santoleri, "Honoré de Balzac and Natoire’s
The Expulsion from Paradise,"
Metropolitan Museum Journal 49 (2014): 193-199.
https://doi.org/10.1086/680033