Study for “In the Woods, Evening”
1892–94
Alexandre Séon
Alexandre Séon (French, 1855–1917)
Drawings
Study for “In the Woods, Evening”, 1892–94. Alexandre Séon (French, 1855–1917). Colored pencils on beige laid paper; sheet: 35.3 x 23 cm (13 7/8 x 9 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 2019.77 In this drawing of nymphs holding lyres, Alexandre Séon hoped to depict, in his words, “the spirit of the forest.” He was inspired by fairy-tales he heard as a child about the woods near the remote village where he grew up. By applying colored pencils to a roughly textured sheet of paper, Séon evoked the hazy tones of twilight and gave the sheet a dreamlike tenor. This drawing relates to a painting that was exhibited to critical acclaim at the 1894 Société nationale des Beaux-Arts—an important avant-garde exhibition—but is lost today.
- Maker/Artist
- Séon, Alexandre
- Classification
- Drawing
- Formatted Medium
- colored pencils on beige laid paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 35.3 x 23 cm (13 7/8 x 9 1/16 in.)
- Inscribed
- Inscription: inscribed, lower right, in blue pencil: Alex Séon; on verso, along top margin, in pencil: Alexandre SEON 1855–1917 / elève de Puvis de Chavannes ¬– la secheresse / de son dessin et sa stylization glacée, s’allient / à la tendresse de son couloris – / [4527]; on verso, on tape at right center, in pencil: 3
- Departments
- Drawings
- Accession Number
- 2019.77
- Credit Line
- Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund
- Rights Statement
- CC0
- Museum Location
- 101A Prints & Drawings
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