Édouard MOYSE (1827-1908) Israelite Synod... - Lot 74 - Audap & Associés

Lot 74
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Édouard MOYSE (1827-1908) Israelite Synod... - Lot 74 - Audap & Associés
Édouard MOYSE (1827-1908) Israelite Synod convened in Paris in 1807 (The Great Sanhedrin) Oil on canvas, signed lower right and dated 1872. (Very small lacks). Height : 72 cm 72 cm ; Width : 106 cm. Inscriptions in pencil on the back of the frame and stretcher, probably autographs: rue du parc royal (Marais) / Israelite Synod convened in Paris in 1807 Jewish painter of Lorraine origin, Édouard Moyse is a major painter of Judaism in the 19th century. He was the first artist who chose to exhibit scenes of Jewish life and founding moments for Jews who had been emancipated and integrated into the nation. He thus illustrated an ideal in which French values and those of Judaism were intertwined. Among the paintings he presented at the Salon, and surely the best known of them, is the one in which Edouard Moyse chose to represent Napoleon's Convocation of the Grand Sanhedrin. This choice was not made by chance. Indeed, this convocation is the founding event of modern French Judaism. It set up a new organization of the Jewish community and promoted the integration of Jews into French society. Napoleon's choice of the term "Grand Sanhedrin" was not by chance. Napoleon chose to resurrect an institution that had disappeared for centuries. His aim was, on the one hand, to restore to the Israelites the dignity they had lost for centuries and, on the other, he hoped to influence their decisions and bring them into the modern world. It is this double movement that Moyse tries to represent. This scene is originally known by its version dated 1868. It was exhibited at the Salon the same year and caused a sensation. Our unpublished and hitherto unknown version shows some differences with the painting by Édouard Moyse kept in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy and seems more finished. Although the scene is treated in the same way overall, some parts have been reworked. The characters are placed at a distance, the details are more precise. The figure to the left of the speaker is modified. A rabbi is added to the bench in the background. A comparison between the version exhibited at the Salon, the version presented at the sale and the lithograph titled Grand Sanhedrin and printed by Cadart shows that the lithograph is based on the version presented at the sale and not the one at the Salon. This suggests that Moyse found it preferable to transcribe in lithograph the version presented at the sale rather than the Salon version. Bibliography : Jean Bernheim, Edouard Moyse ou la peinture israélite 1827-1908. Paris, Editions esthétiques du divers, 2012. Related works: GRAND SANHEDRIN DES ISRAÉLITES DE FRANCE: Study for the painting presented at the 1868 Salon. M.A.H.J, Paris, Inv. number 94.09.001. The Great Sanhedrin of the Israelites of the French Empire convened in Paris by order of Napoleon I on 4 February 1807, 1868. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy. Emile Vernier. Grand Sanhedrin of the Israelites of France, Lithograph printed by Lemercier after the painting by Édouard Moyse.
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