Studio of Jules-Arsène Garnier (1847-1889)
Le droit du seigneur e Le bar dans la rue
59 x 101 cm | 23.2 x 39.7 in
Pair of oils on canvas. Craquelure is present and absence of paint in some areas. Unframed. Unsigned.
Jules Arsene Garnier was born in Paris in 1847. He was a pupil of Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904), a teacher who insisted on the highest standards of figure drawing. Although Garnier did not travel to the East, he did visit Spain and Holland, perhaps with Gérôme in 1874 to study the work of Frans Hals.
Le Droit du Seigneur refers to a supposed legal right in medieval Europe, allowing feudal lords to have sexual relations with subordinate women, in particular, on their wedding nights.
The painting above displays a quite similar work than the one done by Jules-Arsène Garnier in 1872 referring to the named right of the feudal lords. Even though the painting itself is not exactly just as the one confirmed by Garnier's hand, we firmly believe that this version may be a prior studio.
The painting from below in the picture displays a genre scene probably from the Spanish society of late 19th century.