Judith and Holofernes is an oil on canvas painting by Horace Vernet, from 1830. He was then director of the Académie de France à Rome It shows Judith just before beheading Holofernes. Since 22 December 1912 it has been in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau.
History Two models sat for the work; Olympe Pélissier for Judith and Federico Ricci as Holofernes. Vernet produced two studies - a nude bust of Pélissier and a study of two figures together, with Judith seducing and in contact with Holofernes, unlike the finished work. .
It was first exhibited at the 1831 Paris Salon, where it was noted by the art critics Étienne-Jean Delécluze, Charles Blanc and Heinrich Heine. It influenced the chapter "Sous la tente" in Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô, A Woman's Vengeance in Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly's Les Diaboliques and Friedrich Hebbel's play Judith.
It was bought by the Direction des Musées Royaux, . and placed on display at the Musée du Luxembourg before the end of that year. It was moved to the Château de Saint-Cloud in 1835. It was later assigned to the Department of Paintings in the Louvre, before being deposited in its present home.
A copy of the work by a painter called "Rouede" or "Rouche", who eventually became a pupil of Vernet, was rediscovered in the 1990s around dustbins by an inhabitant of Toulouse. .
References
Bibliography (in French)
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External links Judith et Holopherne sur le site web des collections du musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau