Robert Wiedemann Browning: Before A Mirror

Public Domain Image: Before a Mirror (Devant un miroir), oil on canvas painting painted before 1912 by the English painter Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning, also known as Pen Browning (1849-1912).

Theo Molkenboer: La Toilette

PD Image: La Toilette (The Toilet), 1903 oil painting by Theo Molkenboer (1871-1920), located at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Junge Frau beim Frisieren

PD Image: Junge Frau beim Frisieren (Young woman's hair), a 1909 oil on canvas painting by French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), dimensions 49.5 cm x 44 cm, private collection.

Works of Charles-Joseph Natoire

The French painter Charles-Joseph Natoire (1700-1777), a pupil of François Lemoyne and known for his Rococo style, was the director of the French Academy in Rome from 1751 to 1775. He had a profound influence in the art circles of France of his era. Charles-Joseph Natoire is best known for the series of the History of Psyche for Germain Boffrand's oval salon de la Princesse in the Hôtel de Soubise, Paris. The tapestry cartoons for the series of the History of Don Quixote woven at the Beauvais tapestry manufacture, most of which are located at the Château de Compiègne, also won him much acclaim.

PD image: Adam et Ève chassés du Paradis terrestre (Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise) created in 1740 by Charles-Joseph Natoire, located at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

PD Image: Venus Demanding Arms from Vulcan for Aeneas (1734), oil on canvas painting by Natoire, size 194 cm x 140 cm (76.38 in x 55.12 in), located at Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France.

PD image: The Toilet of Psyche (Psyché à sa toilette), oil on canvas painting by Natoire created in 1735, size 198 cm x 169 cm (77.95 in x 66.54 in), on location at New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans. This is one of the four paintings commissioned in 1735 by the farmer-general La Live de Bellegarde (1680-1751) to decorate the living room of his castle, La Chevrette, in Saint-Denis, France.

PD Image: Psyché obtenant de Proserpine l'elixir de beauté (Proserpine obtaining the elixir of beauty from Psyche) 1735 painting by Natoire located at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles.

Proserpina (also spelt as Proserpine, Prosperine or Prosperina, and in Greek mythology her equivalent is Persephone) is an ancient Roman goddess whose story is the basis of the myth of springtime. She was the daughter of Ceres and Jupiter. Venus sent her son Amor (Cupid) to hit Pluto with one of his arrows of love. Proserpina was at the Pergusa Lake near Enna (Sicily) with some nymphs, when Pluto came out from the volcano Etna. Pluto abducted her and married her and lived with her in Inferi, the Roman Underworld ruled by him. Proserpina thus became the Queen of the Underworld. Being Jupiter's (and Ceres's) brother, Pluto was also her uncle.

Woman Standing in Front of a Mirror by Eckersberg

Image: Woman Standing in Front of a Mirror (1841) by Danish painter Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783-1853), oil on canvas, dimensions 33.5 cm x 26 cm (13.19” x 10.24”), current location at Hirschsprungske Samling, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, often referred to as the Father of Danish painting, was born in Blåkrog, now in the southern part of Jutland in Denmark, to painter and carpenter Henrik Vilhelm Eckersberg and Ingeborg Nielsdatter. He is credited with laying the foundation for the period of art known as the Golden Age of Danish Painting. His greatest contribution to painting was during his professorship at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He used to teach students by taking them out into the field and encouraging them to study from nature. He, thus, introduced direct study from nature into Danish art and encouraged his students to develop their individual strengths and to create their own unique styles.

La Toilette by Frederic Bazille

La Toilette (1869-70), oil on canvas painting by French Impressionist painter Jean Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870), Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France.

The Toilet of Bathsheba by Rembrandt van Rijn

‘The Toilet of Bathsheba’, or ‘Batseba aan haar toilet (2 Samuel 11:2)’, a 1643 oil on oak painting by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) or by the workshop of Rembrandt, dimensions 57.2 cm x 76.2 cm (22.52” x 30.00”) currently located in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. On 9 June 1913 the painting was bought by Paris art dealer Duveen at the sale of the collection of Jhr. Hendricus Adolphus Steengracht, The Hague, at the auction house Georges Petit, Paris. From Duveen, the same year, it was bought by Benjamin Altman of New York and bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York by Altman.

The Toilette of Esther by Théodore Chassériau

Image: The Toilette of Esther or La toilette d'Esther, an 1841 oil-on-canvas painting by French romantic painter Théodore Chassériau (1819-1856), with dimensions 45.5 cm x 35.5 cm (17.9” x 14.0”), presently located in Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.

The Toilette of Esther depicts an incident from the Book of Esther, when Esther prepared herself to meet the ruler of Persia King Ahasuerus, who subsequently married her.

The theme of the painting is derived from the Book of Esther (2:8-9, 15), in which King Ahasuerus seeks a new queen after renouncing his wife Vashti. Esther, a woman of great beauty, finds favor with Hegai, the eunuch in charge of preparing women for presentation to the king. After seeing Esther, Ahasuerus chooses her as his wife. She later reveals that she is Jewish, and wanted the king to spare the lives of the Jews in his empire.

The choice of this Old Testament story about a young woman in a harem freed Chassériau to take advantage of elements of the Orientalist and Romantic movements. The presence of Asian women and ample jewelry further romanticizes Esther’s figure. Having previously painted a ‘Birth of Venus’ and a ‘Susanna and the Elders’, Chassériau found another theme in Esther which permitted a frankly sensual presentation of the female body.

It has been noted by art historians that the painting, ‘The Toilette of Esther’, later inspired painters such as François-Léon Benouville and Gustave Moreau. Vincent Pomarède of the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon described the work as ‘one of the most famous (paintings) in the Louvre’.