Chasseriau, in paint and in print: an ambitious and prolific painter until his death at 37, Theodore Chasseriau became a footnote to the history of 19th-century Orientalism. A Franco-American retrospective, the first in almost 70 years, brought the wider range of his work back into view

Art in America, Jan, 2003 by Todd Porterfield

(2.) Guegan, Theodore Chasseriau, pp. 237-38. My translation of the Baudelaire passage differs slightly from the catalogue's.

(3.) In particular see Valerie Goupil, "Peinture et parure," in Chasseriau (1819-1856): Un autre romantisme. Actes du colloque, Stephane Guegan and Louis-Antoine Prat, eds., Paris, La Documentation Francaise-Musee du Louvre, 2002, pp. 135-69.

(4.) Aglaus Bouvenne, "Theodore Chasseriau," L'Artiste, September 1887, p. 173.

(5.) Bruno Chenique takes a psychoanalytic approach to Chasseriau's representation of women, in particular to the representation of female breasts, in "Chasseriau: la haine des femmes," Actes du colloque, pp. 101-34.

(6.) Marc Sandoz, Theodore Chasseriau, 1819-1856. Catalogue raisonne des peintures et estampes, Paris, Arts et Metiers Graphiques, 1974, p. 23.

(7.) Todd Porterfield, "Les Baptemes de Chasseriau," in Actes du colloque, pp. 241-64.

(8.) See also Christine Peltre, Theodore Chasseriau, Paris, Gallimard, 2001.

(9.) The Paris version of the exhibition was the largest, followed by New York (55 paintings and 86 works on paper), with Strasbourg smaller still. For reasons of condition, certain monumental works were shown only in Paris.

(10.) Pomarede, Theodore Chasseriau, p. 61.

(11.) Ibid., pp. 187-88.

(12.) Ibid., p. 70.

(13.) "Les chefs arabes," L'Illustration, Jan. 4, 1845, pp. 1-2, cited by Guegan, Theodore Chasseriau, p. 234. My translation differs slightly from that published in the catalogue.

(14.) An article in the December 1844 issue of L'Illustration framed the Caliph's visit in terms of one culture's submission to another: "we at least can take satisfaction in having some Arab chiefs, our allies, in Paris at this time, who have come to contemplate this civilization that it is our duty to transplant in Africa." Ibid.

(15.) Exhibited in Paris, the fragment was represented by a photograph in New York.

(16.) In 1848, Gautier contrasted the costume, accessories and exchange items of the Eastern merchants with the "more austere Northern costumes" of the Westerners. (See Pomarede, Theodore Chasseriau, p. 231.) Christine Peltre (Actes du Colloque, pp. 231-32) notes that as Theodore Chasseriau was painting the Cour des Comptes, his brother Frederic was writing a life of the Admiral Duperre. The latter's victories in Algeria, Frederic predicted, would lead eventually to just such exchanges between East and West, and in particular to the opening of the Suez Canal, projected during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign but not achieved until 1869.

(17.) Following the Cour des Comptes material and Christ in the Garden of Olives, which hung in the staircase, the Grand Palais's second-floor galleries took us away from the public realm. Here red velvet walls and ceilings evoked a jewel box, perhaps, or a brothel, or the red walls of the Parisian auction house, Drouot.

(18.) Pomarede, Theodore Chasseriau, p. 192.

(19.) Ibid., p. 214.

"Theodore Chasseriau (1819-1856): The Unknown Romantic" was presented at the Grand Palais, Paris [Feb. 26-May 27, 2002] and the Musee des Beaux Arts, Strasbourg [June 9-Sept. 21, 2002] before ending its tour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York [Oct. 21, 2002-Jan. 5, 2003]. The accompanying 432-page catalogue is richly illustrated and features contributions by the exhibition's curators, Stephane Guegan, Vincent Pomarede, Louis-Antoine Prat and Gary Tinterow, and Christine Peltre.