Jump to content

Henri-Guillaume Schlesinger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An Italian beauty
The chess players

Henri-Guillaume Schlesinger, originally Wilhelm Heinrich Schlesinger (6 August 1814, in Frankfurt am Main – 21 February 1893, in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French portrait and genre painter of German birth. He was especially known for his lively and sensitive depictions of young women.

Biography

[edit]

He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, and was originally active in that city. He then moved to Paris, where he participated in the Salon from 1840 to 1889 and received two medals.

During a visit to Istanbul in 1837, he was commissioned to do several official paintings of Sultan Mahmud II, including a large equestrian portrait and one of the Sultan wearing Western-style clothing, which is now on display at the Topkapi Palace Museum. One was donated to King Louis-Philippe by Mustafa Reşid Pasha, who was then serving as Ambassador to France, and may now be seen at Versailles.

His painting "The Five Senses" was purchased by Empress Eugénie in 1865. The following year, he was named a Chevalier in the Legion of Honor[1] and became a French citizen in 1870, just before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. During the war and the subsequent Commune, he lived in London.

In addition to oil paintings, he was a watercolorist and painted miniatures on ivory.

Works

[edit]
Image Title Date Size Notes Collection
Portrait of a young lady 1832 Private collection
Portrait of the art dealer Dominik Artaria 1836 76.5 x 60.5 cm Unknown
Bust portrait of a Viennese middle-class woman 1836 76.5 x 60.5 cm Vienna, Belvedere
Equestrian portrait of Sultan Mahmud II 1837 Private collection
Portrait of a woman 1838
Portrait of Sultan Mahmud II 1839 Private collection
Portrait of the writer Louis Lurine 1844
Blind man's buff 1844 Private collection
Young women singing and playing the lute 1844 Private collection
Young peasant couple 1845 42.9 x 33 cm Private collection
A harem interior 1846 74 x 93 cm Private collection
A dreamy look 1852 Private collection
Courtly scene with a maid 1859 Private collection
Two curious girls on the stairs before a Mediterranean landscape 1860 circa 112 x 87 cm Private collection
The stolen child 1861
Touch; the five senses 1865 circa 115.5 x 89.5 cm Exhibited at the 1865 salon, and acquired by Napoleon III Private collection
Taste; the five senses 1865 circa 115.5 x 89.5 cm Exhibited at the 1865 salon, and acquired by Napoleon III Private collection
Hearing; the five senses 1865 circa 115.5 x 89.5 cm Exhibited at the 1865 salon, and acquired by Napoleon III Private collection
Smell; the five senses 1865 circa 115.5 x 89.5 cm Exhibited at the 1865 salon, and acquired by Napoleon III Private collection
Sight; the five senses 1865 circa 115.5 x 89.5 cm Exhibited at the 1865 salon, and acquired by Napoleon III Private collection
Lost in thought 1868 73 x 59.7 cm Private collection
Alone at the atelier 1868 125.7 x 108 cm

Philadelphia, Museum of Art

An Egyptian girl preparing for the bath 1869 90 x 117.5 cm Private collection
An Italian maiden 1870 51 x 35 cm Private collection
An Italian beauty 1870 72.5 x 60 cm Even if the painting is titled A Spanish beauty, if you see the artwork above has the same clothes, so is quite more likely an Italian one. Private collection
Girl with lovebirds 1876 Harrogate, Mercer Art Gallery
A beautiful frame 1879 circa
The reprimand 1879 Private collection
The young artist 1884 Private collection
Girl with a mandolin 1887 107 x 63.5 cm Private collection
Girl with dead bird 1890 86 x 74 cm Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
Fair in the Pyrenees 31.2 x 42.7 cm United Kingdom, Royal Collection
Young dancer with tambourine Private collection
Chess players Private collection
A ride Private collection
Turkish Woman and Chibouk Private collection
Welcome change 49 x 66 cm The painting is only attributed Private collection

References

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
  • Schlesinger, Heinrich. In: Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker (editors): Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Vol. 30, E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1936, pg. 105.
  • Schlesinger, Heinrich. In: Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon. Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker (AKL). Vol. 9, Saur, Munich, 1994, ISBN 3-598-22749-3, pg. 8
[edit]