Q97592244

This canvas, again carrying an 1801 date and held at the Musée de la Vie romantique, belongs to the broader archive of works associated with Ary Scheffer's long studio residence in the Rue Chaptal. The museum was created from the studio-house itself after the artist's death in 1858, preserving both finished works and working material across all periods of his career. Given the improbability of multiple independent paintings all being executed in 1801 — when Scheffer was six years old — the date almost certainly reflects an administrative convention in the museum's early cataloguing. The canvas is most likely from a later, unspecified point in his career and awaits closer physical examination to establish more precise dating based on paint layer analysis and canvas type.

Technical examination of the ground preparation, canvas weave count, and pigment stratigraphy would allow this work to be assigned more precisely to its actual period of execution. Scheffer's documented stylistic evolution provides clear benchmarks: his early Dutch phase, his academic Parisian training under Guérin, and his mature Romantic manner from the late 1820s onward each have distinct technical fingerprints.