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This painting’s subject comes from Plutarch’s Lives, written in the 2nd century CE. Le Barbier depicts the Spartan Lycurgus, whose brother perished as king leaving a pregnant widow, as he gestures to his infant nephew as the rightful ruler. In choosing justice over authority (and infanticide), Lycurgus showed his honor and was made regent during the child’s minority. His reformation of Spartan society, toward values of austerity and equality, was admired by French Revolutionaries, including Le Barbier.
The Magnanimity of Lycurgus
Jean-Jacques François Le Barbier (French, 1738–1826)
French
1791
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
130.2 × 170.7 cm (51 1/4 × 67 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Henry H. and Zoe Oliver Sherman Fund
Accession Number2022.101
ClassificationsPaintings
This painting’s subject comes from Plutarch’s Lives, written in the 2nd century CE. Le Barbier depicts the Spartan Lycurgus, whose brother perished as king leaving a pregnant widow, as he gestures to his infant nephew as the rightful ruler. In choosing justice over authority (and infanticide), Lycurgus showed his honor and was made regent during the child’s minority. His reformation of Spartan society, toward values of austerity and equality, was admired by French Revolutionaries, including Le Barbier.
InscriptionsLower left: L'Barbier l'Aine 1791 P
Provenance1791, exhibited by the artist at the Paris Salon, no.43. By 1793, Jean-Jacques Avril (b. 1744 – d. 1831), Paris. Thérèse Manajoli (d. 1817), Paris; November 17, 1817, posthumous Manajoli sale, Hôtel de Buillon, Paris, lot 16, to Thomas Henry (b. 1766 – d. 1836), Cherbourg. 1835, M. Bernard, Paris; May 4-5, 1835, M. B[ernard] sale, Bonnefons de Lavialle, Paris, lot 30. 1843, M. Fossard, probably Armand-Jacques Fossard, Paris; March 8-9, 1843, Fossard sale, Bonnefons de Lavialle, Paris, lot 26, withdrawn; possibly passed by descent within the family, Paris and Anet, France [see note 1]. March 26, 2003, anonymous sale, Salle Rossini, Paris, lot 118, to Emmanuel Moatti (dealer), New York and Paris; 2003, sold by Moatti to a private collection, Chicago; October 14, 2021, anonymous (private collector) sale, Christie’s, New York, lot 64, to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 20, 2022)
NOTES:
[1] This painting and Le Barbier’s Ulysses and Penelope departing Sparta for Ithaca (1789), of identical dimensions, were both owned and engraved by Jean-Jacques Avril. Avril inscribed his 1793 engraving after this painting to indicate that he had it in Paris. The two paintings are documented together until at least 1843. Ulysses and Penelope was sold in 1963 in Houdan, France, not far from Anet, where the descendants of Armand-Jacques Fossard lived and kept an art collection. It is possible that the two paintings remained together in this collection.
NOTES:
[1] This painting and Le Barbier’s Ulysses and Penelope departing Sparta for Ithaca (1789), of identical dimensions, were both owned and engraved by Jean-Jacques Avril. Avril inscribed his 1793 engraving after this painting to indicate that he had it in Paris. The two paintings are documented together until at least 1843. Ulysses and Penelope was sold in 1963 in Houdan, France, not far from Anet, where the descendants of Armand-Jacques Fossard lived and kept an art collection. It is possible that the two paintings remained together in this collection.