Ref. 1943

L. Royer

Painter (1852-1926)

« Thwarted Love  »

Signed Lionel Royer and dated 1882

French School
Oil on canvas

Former Salon exhibition label at the top right, n°538
Indication of an exhibition in Lyon on the back of the frame, n°163

Height : 169 cm (66,5 in.) ; Width : 130 cm (51,2 in.) ; Depth : 12 cm (4,7 in.)

Beautiful painting illustrating a theme taken from romantic literature and pastoral novels of the 19th century: impossible love. It depicts an embracing couple, whose love is highlighted by symbols such as the pair of doves above them and the flowering rose bushes. They seem to be of different social classes, a shepherd, and the woman, married, dressed more elegantly. Their love seems to overcome these obstacles, as evidenced by the presence of a spinning wheel in the background, symbol of perseverance.

This theme of impossible love has been evoked since Antiquity (Orpheus and Eurydice in Ovid’s Metamorphoses), in the Middle Ages (Tristan and Yseult or Héloïse and Abelard) and of course in the 19th century (Le Rouge et Le Noir by Stendhal, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë), and illustrated in painting on numerous occasions.

Biography

Lionel-Noël Royer, born December 25, 1852 in Château-du-Loir and died June 30, 1926 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, studied painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris, where he was a student of Alexandre Cabanel and William Bouguereau. Exhibiting at the Salon from 1874, he obtained a 3rd class medal in 1884 and a 2nd class medal in 1896. He won the first Grand Prix de Rome in painting in 1882 and a bronze medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1900. Renowned portraitist, commentator of his time (he painted Dreyfus in his prison for Le Petit Journal), Lionel Royer is best known as a history painter. Marked by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 in which he participated, he seeks to exalt the emblematic figures of French glory, such as Jeanne D’Arc and Vercingétorix. His best-known works are Vercingétorix jette ses armes aux pieds de César  (1899, Crozatier museum in Puy-en-Velay) and the decoration of the basilica of Domrémy dedicated to Joan of Arc. In memory of his participation in the Battle of Loigny, he gave two paintings to the new reconstructed church of this village, one representing the mass heard by the Volunteers of the West before leaving for the battle and the second depicting the night of agony of General de Sonis on the battlefield. In 1897, he donated to the Maine Historical and Archaeological Society ten watercolor models representing the Life of Joan of Arc, executed to the tenth and presented in 1893 in the competition for the glass roofs of the Sainte-Croix Cathedral in Orléans, which he will not realize.