A Portrait Group of Parisian Celebrities
Artist
Alfred Stevens
(Belgian, 1823 – 1906)
Date1889
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsImage: 92 3/4 x 96 3/4 in. (235.6 x 245.7 cm)
Frame: 100 1/2 x 104 1/2 x 5 in. (255.3 x 265.4 x 12.7 cm)
Frame: 100 1/2 x 104 1/2 x 5 in. (255.3 x 265.4 x 12.7 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineBequest of John Ringling, 1936
Object numberSN439
This work is a fragment of an enormous painting entitled <i>Panorama du Siècle</i> (Panorama of the Century), 120 meters (393 feet) in length, created for the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. Stevens, a Belgian painter who had made his career in Paris, collaborated on the project with his former student, Henri Gervex (1852-1929). The Panorama contained 641 portraits of famous men and women of the century from 1789 to 1889, and was displayed in a round building created for it in the Tuileries Gardens. After the Exposition closed, the <i>Panorama</i> was shown in other locations in Europe and the United States, but, failing to attract a buyer, it was eventually cut into sections and dispersed. The individuals portrayed in The Ringling’s section include noted dramatists, writers, and composers, but none is more important than the woman dressed in white, the world-famous actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), a former pupil of Stevens and one of his closest friends.
On View
On viewLocation
- Museum of Art, Gallery 21, Wall East
