Innocence Prefers Love to Riches
Pierre Paul Prud'hon·c. 1804
Historical Context
Pierre Paul Prud'hon's Innocence Prefers Love to Riches, painted around 1804, is an allegorical composition by the most distinctive French painter of the Napoleonic era. Prud'hon developed a unique style that combined Neoclassical grace with a soft, sensuous chiaroscuro inspired by Leonardo da Vinci and Correggio. His allegorical works, with their combination of moral sentiment and physical beauty, were admired by both the revolutionary and Napoleonic regimes.
Technical Analysis
Prud'hon's oil-on-panel technique creates his signature effect of soft, luminous figures emerging from shadowy backgrounds. The sfumato modeling and cool, blue-toned shadows distinguish his work from the sharper, more linear Neoclassicism of his contemporaries, creating an atmosphere of dreamlike sensuality.
Provenance
Probably François Marcille (died 1856), Paris [de Goncourt and de Goncourt 1876 report that he bought it in 1839 and bequeathed it to his son Camille]; by descent to his son, Camille Marcille (died 1875), Paris; his estate sale Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 6, 1876, lot 51, for 8,000 francs [price according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague]. L. Tabourier, Paris, by 1889 [lent to Paris 1889]; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 20–22, 1898, lot 118, for 5,000 francs [price according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague]. Durand-Ruel, Paris, by 1898 [it is likely that Durand-Ruel purchased the painting at the Tabourier sale, possibly as agent for Martin A. Ryerson]; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (died 1932) for 5,000 francs, July 20, 1898 [according to the transaction invoice, Ryerson Papers, Art Institute Archives]; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.
