Around Eros, Plutus and the Glory
Several studies show the evolution of the artist’s research : oil painting on paper then remounted on canvas, ink drawing, pencil drawing, pencil drawing from a sculpture, which means that M.J. Carpentier had actually moulded one of the figures.
The technique used in the finished work is oil painting on linen canvas. In her diary, Marguerite Jeanne Carpentier specifies that she « painted it with a simplified palette (…) The tuning of the harmonic clef [was] realized in dark golden tones, and a warm light pink note. »
Eros, Plutus and the Glory is a large canvas : 240 x 210 cms. The artist drew her inspiration from a poem by Charles Baudelaire (Spleen de Paris) :
Last night, two fine Satans and a none less extraordinary she-devil climbed the stairs by which inferno attacks the weakness of the slumbering man, and communicates with him secretly.Charles Baudelaire - Spleen de Paris
After the death of the artist the picture was sold in 1945 at the Hôtel Drouot to one of her warm admirer who died a few years later. It was then bought by a Parisian gallery and sold again to a private collector.
M. J. Carpentier writes in her diary that she considered Eros, Plutus and the Glory as one of her most important works.
Marion Boyer - Elise Rieuf museum curator
