EVARISTE-VITAL LUMINAIS | The Invasion

Paris, Salon des Artistes français, 1872, n° 1046

Georges Lafenestre, « Salon de 1872 », L'Illustration, June 2nd 1872, vol. LIX, n° 1530, p. 401 (illustrated in the n° 1529, June 15th 1872) ;
Le Journal amusant, June 22nd 1872, n° 825, p. 7.

Good overall condition. Relined. The painting is dirty and would benefit from a cleaning. Worn in places. Craquelures and restorations on the neck and on the shoulder of the woman dressed in yellow. Under UV light : Small repaints scattered on the surface. Small repaint on the nipple. A diagonal restoration in the sky. Repaint around the face of the woman dressed in yellow.
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In a dramatic scenery, where the sky is darkened by the smoke of a burning and pillaged temple, two Gaul horsemen grab their bounty: young Greek or Roman women, who will become their slaves. Evariste Luminais shows here the full extent of his talent in the historical genre. Passionate about archeology, he is also obsessed with meticulousness and accuracy. He belongs to those French artists of the III^rd Republic whose esthetic was inspired by subjects from French national history. Exhibited in the 1872 Salon under the title "Invasion", this work was immediately perceived as an allegory of the French defeat of 1870. "The allusion is transparent, even though the scene is set in another time", wrote the critic for Le Journal Amusant, before adding this was a "major canvas".

A painting of the same subject, kept in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (inv. 24.230), is probably a preparatory work for the painting exhibited in the Salon in 1872. It has some differences with the latter (the pink dress of one of the slaves, the wings on the side of the Gaul's helmet...).