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| Keywords: Eugène Louis Lami - Study for a Painting of a Costume Ball Given by the Princess of Sagan - Walters 372607.jpg This watercolor is a study for a painting entitled Fęte chez la princess de Sagan 1883 private collection that was produced to commemorate a ball held in 1883 at the Sagan mansion near Les Invalides in Paris now the Polish embassy Therefore the inscription on the back of the watercolor- Study for a party at the Durazzo Palace executed for Monsieur the Viscomte Henri Greffuhle -is partially incorrect Although this work was indeed in Greffuhle's collection the nature of this image as a preparatory study causes us to question the viscount's role in its commission It is more likely that he simply purchased the watercolor from the artist as a memento of the occasion for his wife the Comtesse Greffuhle Lemoisne Paris 1914 416 Moreover the statement that the ball took place at the Durazzo Palace is misleading as the party occurred at the princess's Parisian home The confusion however is easily explained by the fact that for the ball the princess had the entryway and grand staircase of the Durazzo Palace in Genoa reconstructed in her own house The level of detail and the positioning of the figures so that they directly face the viewer in Study for a Costume Ball indicate the commemorative nature of the painting for which it was prepared Lami shows the guests spilling forth from the background down the grand staircase and through a large arch into the immediate foreground of the image As they proceed toward us the revelers move out of an area of relative darkness into the brightly lit frontal plane The lighting combined with the placement of the guests facing the viewer compels us to admire the elaborate beauty of their 16th-century costumes Moreover it would have allowed the original owners-the countess and the viscount-to recall the evening vividly as the highly detailed faces of the guests transform the work into what is essentially a group portrait 1883 watercolor with graphite underdrawing heightened with white on cream thick heavily textured wove paper cm 53 4 38 1 accession number 37 2607 22331 Countess and Viscount Greffuhle Paris date and mode of acquisition unknown RenĂ©e Fribourg Christian Hamann Robert Isaacson New York Shepherd Gallery New York Walters Art Museum 1983 by purchase Museum purchase 1983 E L /1883 in red-orange watercolor lower left The Essence of Line The Non-Dissenters IV The Shepherd Gallery New York 1968 Ingres and Delacroix through Degas and Puvis de Chavannes The Figure in French Art 1800-1870 The Shepherd Gallery New York 1975 A Connoisseur's Portfolio Sarah Bernhardt and Her Times Wildenstein Company New York 1984 French Masterworks on Paper The Walters Art Gallery Baltimore 1992 French Master Drawings The Walters Art Gallery Baltimore 1997-1998 place of origin France Walters Art Museum license 2D A Connoisseur's Portfolio The Essence of Line Eugène-Louis Lami French paintings in the Walters Art Museum 19th-century genre paintings 1880s paintings from France 1883 paintings Costume balls | ||||
