Paul BAUDRY (La Roche-sur-Yon, 1828 - Paris, 1886). - Lot 47

Paul BAUDRY (La Roche-sur-Yon, 1828 - Paris, 1886). Joueuse d'aulos: study for Britannic. Black pencil signed lower left "Baudry" (very unstained, traces of rubbing, two tears on the right edge). Inscribed "étude pour Britannic, dessus de la porte". Height 30.5 cm - Width 17.5 cm Note: The son of a clogmaker, Paul Baudry was supported from the outset by his hometown, La Roche-sur-Yon, which offered him an annual pension to train in Paris. Thus, in 1850, he won the first Grand Prix de Rome, making a name for himself with the quality of his coloring. He then followed the academic path at the Villa Médicis for five years, discovering Rome and, with a grant from the Conseil Général de la Vendée, traveling to Florence with William Bouguereau in 1852 and to Venice the following year. In the summer of 1853, he visited Naples and Pompeii with Charles Garnier. On his return to Paris, he painted his first set of overdoors, which were later dismantled and replaced at the Hôtel Marigny-Rothschild, where they remain to this day. The following year, in 1858, he painted two overdoors for Achille Fould's hotel, now in the Musée Condé in Chantilly. When Charles Garnier won the competition for the new Paris Opera House in 1862, he commissioned his friend Paul Baudry to design the décor for the Grand Foyer. For this gigantic undertaking, Baudry felt the need to immerse himself in the tradition of the great decorators, returning to Rome to copy entire sections of Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel, then to London to study the tapestry cartoons for Raphael's Acts of the Apostles. From 1862 to 1874, he worked tirelessly on his mission, leaving a large number of preparatory drawings, most of which are kept at the Bibliothèque et Musée de l'Opéra.