Lot 1534 Dα

Ferdinand Heilbuth studied in Munich and Antwerp before settling in Paris where he worked in the studios of Paul Delaroche and Charles Gleyre. He continued his studies during sojourns to Rome and London. Heilbuth's oeuvre can be divided into two phases. In the first phase he painted in the manner of the Old Masters, following them in both motif and style, in the late 1860s he began experimenting with plein air painting, inspired by his acquaintance and friendship with leading members of the young Impressionist movement, including Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, and Edgar Degas. His brushwork became looser, his colours lighter, and landscapes took on a more prominent role within his oeuvre.
This depiction of a concert in a palace is a product of the artist's earlier phase, which lasted from around 1850 to 1865. It shows a Cardinal and his female companion surrounded by members of his courtly retinue listening to a singer and musicians in the left edge of the painting. The work can be compared to a number of historical genre scenes which Heilbuth exhibited at the Paris Salons of the 1850s and for which he garnered several medals, including “Audience with Rubens” (1853) or “Luca Signorelli with the Body of his Dead Son” (1859, today in the Kunsthalle Hamburg). These works are characterized by their dark colour palette which contrasts with the brighter tones of the figures' clothing, and the smoothly painted surface.