Claude Vignon
, French, 1593-1670
Title
Pauline Attempting SuicideDate1630
MediumRed chalk and graphite on paper
Dimensions
40.8 x 27.2 cm
Credit LineTransferred, National Museum of Ireland, 1966
Object numberNGI.3838
DescriptionThis drawing was one of the twenty figure studies supplied by Vignon for Le Moyne’s series of engravings ‘La galerie des femmes fortes’, published in 1647. Paulina was the Roman philosopher Seneca’s second wife. He had committed suicide in A.D. 65 (the scene portrayed in the right background) having been accused of conspiracy against the Emperor Nero. On the emperor’s orders, Paulina’s attempted suicide, by cutting a vein in her arm, was thwarted by a Roman guard.Inscriptionlower left (unde rimage, in ink): N 13. R Dublin Society
centre (under image, in graphite): Pavline
lower left (under image, in ink): Ed Hardman (?) A...Sch. 1833
ProvenanceRoyal Dublin Society; transferred from the Royal Dublin Society to the National Museum of Ireland, 1878; transferred, National Museum of Ireland, 1966 Exhibition HistoryDrawings from the National Gallery of Ireland, Wildenstein, London/New York, 1967
Master European Drawings From the Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Centre, Colorado; Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park; Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; The Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minnesota; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1983
Von Poussin bis Monet. Die Farben Frankreichs, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 10 October 2015 - 17 January 2016