Félix Joseph Barrias

Sold, Sotheby's, London, February 27, 1985, lot 194, illustrated

Paris, Salon, 1894, no. 95
Copenhagen, Exposition des Beaux Arts, 1897 (according to an old paper label on the frame's reverse)

Cassel's Book of Knowledge, n.d., vol. III, p. 1329, illustrated
Arthur Mees, Children's Encyclopaedia, n.d., p. 3225, illustrated
Jacques Busse, ed., Le Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs Bénézit, 1999, p. 786

Lined, very finely patterned craquelure in background, sky, and figures. Under UV: a few spots of inpainting in beards of figures at right and left, to sky and Esther's arms, face, hands and body.
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A plaque affixed to the frame encapsulates the heroic narrative of the Biblical Queen Esther, translated from the French as, "Esther goes before Ahasuerus/She goes to save her people or die/Mordechai, wearing a sack and covered with ashes urges her/confident in God she advances toward the king." 

Raised by her cousin Mordechai, the young Jewess Hadassah's name was changed to Esther when she entered the harem of King Ahasuerus, ultimately chosen as the king's favorite and replacement for his belligerent wife Vashti. Though Mordechai and Esther saved King Ahasuerus from an assassination plot, they soon found their lives and the fate of Persian Jews at his mercy. Insisting he would bow only to his God, Mordechai had refused to fall before the egotistical court authority Hamon. Enraged by this act of disobedience, Hamon convinced Ahasuerus that Mordechai and all the empire's Jews should be killed. Faced with the knowledge that he had doomed his people, Mordechai rented his robes and threw ash over his head, arriving before the King's gates to beg Esther to save their people. Esther took the daring step to go before Ahasuerus uninvited, reminding him that in killing the Jews he would sentence her to death as well. Her case was so convincing that the overconfident Hamon and his men were hung on the gallows built for Mordechai, who was named to a high position at court, while the Jews were given the authority to defend themselves through future generations.

A bold re-imagining of a Biblical scene long favored by many artists, particularly Renaissance masters, Barrias' monumental painting envisions Esther's faith, goodness, devotion, and courage by placing her at the center of the composition. The long, vertical format and low perspective places the viewer within the picture space, standing before Esther and next to an unseen Ahasuerus. Whereas Esther is often shown in kneeling supplication before the King or in a limp-limbed faint (fig. 1), here she stands proudly erect, her palms placed upward demonstrating her vulnerability. The crowd, including the ash-covered Mordechai, his robe pulled over his head, hovers in tense anticipation, as one young attendant gazes proudly upon his mistress and another looks directly at the viewer. Such a dramatic, emotionally compelling composition is a hallmark of Barrias' artistic production.

A native of Paris, born in 1822, Barrias began his early artistic career as a porcelain painter, the chosen profession of his father. While his younger brother Louis-Ernest is known for his sculpture, Félix Joseph devoted himself to painting, entering the studio of Léon Cogniet. By the age of 19 Barrias had exhibited twice at the Paris Salon, and in 1844 his Cincinnatus Receiving The Envoys from the Senate won him the prestigious Prix de Rome, affording him travel to Italy. During the next 65 years of his prolific career, he became best known for his classical, medieval, and mythological subjects. A prolific mural painter, his work was exhibited in London, St. Petersbug, and Paris. The grand scale of his murals, coupled with decades studying Western history's best legends, ensured that Barrias' Esther se rend chez Assuérus met wide acclaim upon it debut at the Salon of 1894, and still stands as a uniquely compelling portrayal of the ageless Biblical story.