Hector LEROUX (Verdun, 1829 -Angers, 1900) Lesbie's sparrow Oil on canvas (Original canvas) Signed 'hector le ROUX' lower right Titled '.LESBIE.' upper right Annotated 'ARTS LIBERAUX / PARIS 1883' in the stool base lower right Canvas by Blanchet The Sparrow of Lesbia, oil on canvas, signed, by H. Leroux 68.50 x 39.76 in. 174 x 101 cm Our theme comes from the collection of poems 'Carmina' written by Catullus (Verona, 87 - 54 BC). The poet Catullus was passionately in love with Lesbie, a married woman living in Rome. In "Fletus passeris Lesbiae", he depicts a sparrow enjoying all the attentions of his mistress, revealing his desire and his own jealousy at the indifference he suffers at the hands of his beloved. This iconography was a great success in the second half of the 19th century, as it made it possible to sublimate both the antique settings brought back into fashion by the neo-Pompeian wave and to translate the most powerful and dramatic feelings into paint. Armand Barthet turned it into a comedy, successfully performed by the actress Rachel between 1848 and 1849. The subject was quite popular with foreign painters in the mid-nineteenth century (Alma-Tadema, Poynter, etc.). More than twenty years before our painting, a work by Charles-Guillaume Brun1 entitled "Complainte faite au moineau de Lesbie" had been exhibited at the 1861 Salon. Both Brun and Leroux were students at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts under Picot, a painter who helped to spread the Greek Revival or Pompeian Revival style, the French equivalent of the British Classical Revival. Hector Leroux himself had previously dealt with this theme in a painting done in Rome in 1868 and now in the Musée de la Princerie in Verdun. Our Lesbie is very different from the one in Verdun; it is refined and solemn, both in terms of size and treatment. The artist seems to have thought carefully about his composition, as evidenced by two works: a small sketch with variants2 and a medium-format canvas, also with variants3. 1 - Anonymous sale; Paris, Artcurial, 21 March 2018, lot 188, sold for €88,400 2 - Fairfield, James D. Julia, 24 August 2016, lot 1364, Hector Leroux, Lesbie, oil on panel, 22 x 10 cm. 3 - Boston, Skinner, 7 March 2003, lot 592, Hector Leroux, Lesbie, oil on canvas, 81 x 36.5 cm. The hammer price is exclusive of VAT. VAT at the reduced rate of 5.5% applies to the hammer price and the sales commission. This VAT is recoverable for French professionals. It is refundable for a buyer from outside the EU on presentation of proof of export from the EU or for a professional buyer with an intra-Community VAT number and a document proving delivery in the Member State. The hammer price will be VAT excluded. 5.5% VAT will be added to the hammer price and buyer's premium. Upon request, this VAT can be refunded to the purchaser on presentation of written proof of exportation outside the EU or to the EU purchaser who will submit his intracommunity VAT number and a proof of shipment of his purchase to his EU country home address. Hector LEROUX (Verdun, 1829 -Angers, 1900) 174 x 101 cm