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The Death of Alcestis
The Death of Alcestis

The Death of Alcestis

Artist Pierre Peyron French, 1744–1814
Date1794
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions38 1/4 x 37 11/16 in. (97.2 x 95.7 cm)
Frame: 46 3/4 x 46 3/8 in. (118.7 x 117.8 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LinePurchased with funds from gifts by Mr. and Mrs. Jack L. Linsky, Mrs. George Khuner, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, anonymous gift, Lady Marcia Cunliffe-Owen, William Walker Hines, and Mrs. Alfred Elliott Dieterich, by exchange.
Object number91.1
On View
Not on view
ProvenanceExhibited at the Salon de l'Académie de Peinture, 1791, no.116 /118; Deloynes collection, by 1881; Parisian art market, ca. 1985, where said to have come from an unidentified private collection in Aix-en-Provence; private collection, Paris, until 1989; sale, Sotheby's, Monaco, June 16, 1989, lot 398; bought by Colnaghi, New York; sold to NCMA, 1991.
Published ReferencesJournal Général de France, supplement du (21 December 1791), 1324.

"Collection Deloynes," in Collection de pieces sur les Beaux-Arts, impriméeset manuscrites, recueille par Pierre-Jean Mariette, Charles-Nicolas Cochin et M. Deloynes, conserve au Cabinet des Estampes de la Bibliothèque Nationale, catalogue établi et publié par G. Duplessis, (Paris, 1881), tome XVII, no. 436, p.19; no. 438, p.28; no.441, p.67, as an "Esquisse terminée."

E. Bellier de la Chavignierie and L. Auvray, Dictionnaire Général des Artistes de l'ecole Française (Paris 1880), 259.

Pierre Rosenberg and Udolpho van de Sandt, Pierre Peyron, 1744-1814 (Neuilly-sur-Seine: Arthena, 1983), 36-41, 118-121, illus. figs. 92-99 (related).

Alan Wintermute, ed., 1789: French Art During the Revolution (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Colnaghi, 1989), cat. no. 41, illus.

Steven Litt, Raleigh: The News and Observer, (January 10, 1991), 4B.

D.H.S. [David Henry Steel], "Recent Acquisition," in North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Spring 1991), discussed 8-9, illus. (color) 8.

"Acquisitions," North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Winter 1991-92), illus. (b-w) 41.

H. J. Nicholas Hall, ed., Colnaghi in America: A Survey to Commemorate the First Decade of Colnaghi New York (New York: Colnaghi, 1992), 100, illus. (color) 108-109.

Gazette des Beaux Arts no. 1478 (March 1992), 70, illus. fig. 237.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (color) 132.

Joseph P. Covington, entry for The Death of Alcestis, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 7, 179, 180, illus. (color) 180.

Chuck Twardy, "Gifts to ourselves," Raleigh: The News and Observer, "What's Up" insert (December 12, 1997), mentioned 16.

Pierre Rosenberg, Passion for Drawing: Poussin to Cezanne, Works from the Prat Collection (exhibition catalogue) (Alexandria, VA: Art Services International, 2004), noted and illus. (b-w) 106, fig. 2 (catalogue only, not in show). Spanish edition published 2007 by Fundación "la Caixa," Barcelona.

Joseph P. Covington, entry for The Death of Alcestis, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 366, illus. (color) 367.

Guillaume Faroult, Christophe Leribault, and Guilhem Scherf, eds., Antiquity Revived: Neoclassical Art in the Eighteenth Century (exhibition catalogue) (Paris: Gallimard and Musée du Louvre, 2011), cat. no. 95, illus. (color) 173.

Yuriko Jackall, et al., America Collects Eighteenth Century French Painting (exhibition catalogue) (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2017), noted 23 and 231, briefly discussed 115, listed 278–79, illus. (color) 239, pl. 56, detail (color) 100.
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, Colnaghi, "1789: French Art During the Revolution," October10-November 22, 1989, cat. no. 41, illus.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Art for the People: Recent Museum Acquisitions," September 14, 1997-January 4, 1998. (Closing date extended to January 25, 1998)

Houston, TX, Museum of Fine Arts, "Neoclassicism: A Taste for the Antique, 1720-1790," March 20-May 30, 2011, cat. no. 95, illus. (color).

Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, “America Collects Eighteenth Century French Painting,” May 21–August 20, 2017, cat. noted 23 and 231, briefly discussed 115, listed 278–79, illus. (color) 239, pl. 56, detail (color) 100.
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