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View Image(s): Chantilly, 1773, Compare
Image Metadata:
Image Description:
A young courtier, fashionably dressed in a powdered wig, justaucorps (the long knee-length coat), embellished waistcoat, a sword, culottes, with a tricorn hat removed from his head and tucked under his arm – a gallant gesture to acknowledge the young woman who has fallen asleep while reading in the garden, her parasol discarded in the shade of the tree above the bench, and the book fallen face down on the floor, apparently dropped from her limp hand. The woman is dressed in a robe à la française, formal court dress for women of this period. The scene is set in a lush, overgrown formal garden, very much in the taste of eighteenth-century France. By that time, it had become fashionable to allow the formal gardens designed in the reign of Louis XIV to spill beyond their strict, geometric lines. Clipped hedges were left to return to a more natural form. The effect was one that captured the ideal of arcadian landscapes—romantic, timeless spaces that hinted at a civilised presence albeit one reclaimed by nature.
A famous statue of Cupid by Étienne-Maurice Falconet is placed on a pedestal above the sleeping woman in Moreau’s print. That sculpture was originally commissioned by the Marquise de Pompadour and exhibited in the 1757 salon in Paris. It became widely reproduced, particularly as a white biscuit porcelain Sèvres figurine – Falconet had been appointed as director of the sculpture workshop at the Manufacture royale de porcelain at Sèvres the same year this work was exhibited at the Salon. Cupid’s gesture of a finger raised to his lips suits the scene perfectly with its double call for silence and secrecy. The legend beneath the print quotes from the chanson “ses yeux sont fermés au jour/comme son coeur à l’amour” [her eyes are closed to the day/like her heart to love]. It is a moment of unreciprocated desire that recalls the ‘galantries’, or courtly games of love, made famous in Pierre Choderlos de Laclos 1782 epistolary novel, Les Liasons dangereuses.
Moreau’s design for this print in the Chantilly album reveals a very subtle change that alters the narrative slightly. The small lapdog (a symbol of fidelity) that emerges from the woman’s voluminous skirts is barking excitedly at the would-be suitor in the drawing but appears with mouth closed and more relaxed in the print. This might be explained in relation to the narrative of the song, which gives the impression that the young man has not yet made his advance on the target of his affections. The faithful dog guards his mistress in the drawing but appears more equivocal in the final print – as befits the equivocal moment in this story.
It might be noted that Moreau le Jeune depicted sleeping figures several times in his career. Indeed, one of his first major commissions for a print after the work of Jean-Baptiste Greuze was La Philosophe Endormie, modelled after Greuze wife, apparently asleep with a cat on her lap. In browsing Adrien Moreau’s biography of Moreau le Jeune, one also finds a number of sketches of sleeping men and women.
Plate Signature: “JM moreau Le Jne Inv Scul. 1774”
Artist: “Moreau, Jean Michel”
Engraver: “Moreau, Jean Michel”
Year: 1774
Inscription: “Ses yeux sont fermés au jour / Comme son cœur à L’amour.”
Keywords: balustrades, books, court dress, Cupid (Roman deity), day (time of day), dogs (species), exterior, fêtes galantes, giant reed, handkerchiefs, hats, lovers, parasols (costume accessories), plinths, putti (children), sculpture (visual works), seductions, shrubs, sleeping, statues, terraces (landscaped-site elements), trees, tricornes, upper class
Texts which refer to this image: Mahérault, L’oeuvre de Moreau le jeune, 25
Other works of art quoted in this image: Falconet, Étienne-Maurice, L’Amour Menaçant, 1757. Mauritshius 906
General Metadata:
Group Page Range: Vol. 1, 24-28
Title Page Inscription: “LA DORMEUSE”
Published Notes:
Listen:
View Score(s): 1773
Song 1 recording: Doux repos vous régnés
Song 2 recording: Dans ces beaux lieux
Credit: Paul McMahon, tenor
Amy Moore, soprano
Erin Helyard, harpsichord (French double by Carey Beebe after Blanchet, 1991)
Temperament: Jean-Henri Lambert, 1774, A:392
Song 1 diction recording:
Song 2 diction recording:
Credit: Eighteenth-century diction prepared and declaimed by Linda Barcan with the assistance of Erin Helyard and Veronique Duche
Music Metadata:
Song 1 Description:
S.1.04.1.mid
S.1.04.2.mid
Song 1 Composer: [Laborde, Jean-Benjamin de]
Song 1 Key Signature: Bb
Song 1 Time Signature: 2
Song 1 Expression Marks: Allegretto
Song 1 Tessitura of Voice: f1-ab2
Song 1 Tessitura of Instrument: C-c3
Song 1 Strophic: Non-strophic
Song 1 Related Compositions:
Song 2 Description:
Song 2 Composer: [Laborde, Jean-Benjamin de]
Song 2 Key Signature: Eb
Song 2 Time Signature: 3
Song 2 Expression Marks: Cantabile
Song 2 Tessitura of Voice: d1-f2
Song 2 Tessitura of Instrument: Eb-g2
Song 2 Strophic: Strophic
Song 2 Related Compositions:
Read:
Song 1 Transcription:
Dous repos vous régnés
sur l’aimable Silvie
ses yeux sont fermés au jour
comme son cœur à l’amour
peignés lui S’il se peut
le malheur de ma vie
qu’un instant au moins son cœur
soit sensible à ma douleur.
Tant de fois aimables Songes,
Vous peignés de doux mensonges
hélas! hélas!
un seul instant
Consolés le plus tendre amant
un seul instant
Consolés le plus tendre amant.
Song 2 Transcription:
I
Dans ces beaux lieux mon Iris doit se rendre:
hatés vous doux moment qui flattés mon espoir
Ah! s’il est rien d’égal au plaisir de la voir
C’est seulement le chagrin de l’attendre
c’est seulement le chagrin de l’attendre.
II
Avec transport j’ai vu lever l’aurore,
Son éclat, sa fraicheur me retraçoient Iris:
Cent fois dans mon ardeur je my serois mépris,
Si mon Iris n’étoit plus fraiche encore.
III
Mais en songeant aux charmes de sa vuë
Je n’ai pu dans mon cœur faire naitre l’espoir;
J’ai pleuré de plaisir, devant bientôt la voir
Et de douleur de l’avoir déjà vuë.
Text Metadata:
Song 1 Text Description:
Song 1 Incipit: Doux repos
Song 1 Author: “Laborde, Jean-Benjamin de”
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Song 2 Text Description:
Song 2 Incipit: Dans ces beaux lieux
Song 2 Author: “Laborde, Jean-Benjamin de”
Song 2 Keywords:
Sources that refer to song 2 text:
