Eugène Appert
The Confession at the Convent
Oil on painting, signed & dated lower right APPERT. 1865.
The Confession at the Convent is the last painting that Eugène Appert ever exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1865. It marks the culmination of a brillant career interrupted by the early death of the painter.Read more
The chromatic quality of the work and its sustained drawing attracted the keen eye of Emperor Napoleon III’s cousin, Princess Mathilde, patron of the arts and artist herself. The Confession in the Convent was part of her personal collection. She bought it after its display at the Paris Salon of 1865.
The recent discovery in the private archives of the Princess (now at the Fondation Custodia in Paris) of its mention among the list of purchases of the year 1865 confirms the former prestigious provenance of our painting.
Explication des ouvrages de peinture et dessins, sculpture, architecture et gravure… des artistes vivants... Paris, Charles de Mourgues Frères, 1865, p. 7.
Louis Auvray, Exposition des Beaux-Arts. Salon de 1865, Paris, A. Lévy fils, 1865, p. 47.
Edmond About, « Salon de 1865. XII », Le Petit Journal, 7 juin 1865, n° 858, p. 3.
Félix Jahyer, Salon de 1865 : étude sur les Beaux-Arts, Paris, E. Dentu, 1865, p. 14.
Purchased from the painter Eugène Appert by Her Imperial Highness Princess Mathilde Bonaparte for 4.000 Fr
Personal Collection of Her Imperial Highness Princess Mathilde Bonaparte until her death in 1904.
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