Sweet Melancholy

Oil on canvas, 68 x 55 cm (26 3/4 x 21 5/8 inches)
Signed lower right: "jos. m. vien / 1756"

Cleveland Museum of Art
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1996.1

Description:
The chair, brazier, table, and the setting all show Vien's interest in bringing archaeological accuracy to a new level of precision. Yet his delicate handling and graceful palette derive squarely from 18th-century French painting. The gesture of the melancholic figure, with her head on her hand, has roots going back to the Renaissance. Nonetheless, the painting has a wistful rather than tragic tone. Indeed, images of women in interiors, contemplating a letter with longing or sadness, derive from earlier Dutch paintings of daily life, here transformed into an ancient context.