Adrien DAUZATS
(Bordeaux 1804 – Lyon 1888)
Shrine of Edward the Confessor, Westminster Abbey
Oil on canvas
76 x 88 cm
Provenance : N°82 Dauzats’ sale, 1-4 février 1869, Paris, Hötel Drouot
(stamped on the back)
Related work : Adrien Dauzats, L’intérieur de l’Abbaye Westminster avec le tombeau d’Edward le Confesseur, oil on canvas, 43 x 53 cm, anonymous sale of March 24 2010, Paris, Drouot, Tajan, lot 127
Adrien Dauzats had begun learning painting from his family and specialized at first in scenography. After his training in Paris by Michel Julien Gué, he was quickly noticed by Baron Taylor in 1827, and was invited to travel with him in Spain, Egypt and Middle-East to draw for his book series Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l’ancienne France (1820 - 1878). Being a part of the “romanticism group” in Paris, Dauzats was a very close friend to Eugène Delacroix, Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.
We often find traces of Orientalism in Dauzats’s works. Also, in his artworks, architecture is always his primary focus. Dauzats paid high attention and depicted with precision, hence, his works come with great historical and cultural value. With Baron Taylor, Dauzats had traveled several times to London. In 1835, he was recommended by the Baron to paint the chapel in Westminster Abbey. Our work presents the shrine of Edward III the Confessor (1003 - 1066) in this church. Son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, Edward III was king of the English between 1043 - 1066. The shrine which contains the king’s body was built two hundreds years later under the order of king Henri III.
This work appears in the artist’s after-death sale’s catalog and is classified among the unfinished works, or perhaps we should consider the sketched style Dauzats’s own choice. As a lover of the interior view of churches, this work is a very beautiful example in which Dauzats perfectly shows his virtuosity and his romanticism taste for the painting.
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