A Companion of Diana

1710-1724

Jean-Louis Lemoyne

Artist, French, 1666 - 1755

Carved from white marble, a young woman holds a short spear by one side and looks down toward a dog standing by her other side in this free-standing sculpture. Her body faces us in this photograph, and her head is tipped forward and to our right. She has a straight, delicate nose, and her thin lips are parted, possibly in a slight smile. Her wavy hair is held back under a band with an ornament on the crown, and a long curl falls behind one shoulder. Her knee-length garment exposes one firm breast and half of the other. The drapery clings tightly to her body and legs so the folds accentuate her curves. A longer garment falls from her waist, behind her legs, to pool at her sandaled feet. She stands with her weight mostly on her left leg, to our right, and the other knee bent. She holds the shaft of the spear with her right hand, to our left. Her other arm is drawn across her body at waist level. With that hand, she loosely holds the dog’s leash, which then falls across her thighs to the dog, sitting at her feet to our right. The short haired, thin, muscular hound is seated so its chest squares toward us. It twists its head up to look at the woman, its nose pressed along her leg. Its mouth is open, and the tongue curls out over sharp teeth. The dog wears a snug, buckled collar. The woman and dog stand on a square platform of white marble resting on a slab veined with charcoal gray and black, against a smoke-gray wall.

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This companion of the Roman goddess of hunting and the moon was meant to be seen among green leaves in the gardens of Marly, a palace of King Louis XIV of France. She belongs to a planned series of statues, of which only a few were completed before the king's death in 1715. Marly served as a hunting retreat where the king could shed the burdens and formality of his main palace at Versailles, and the style and expression of Lemoyne's nymph suggest such relaxation. Twisting with effortless grace, she beams down at an affectionate hound. Open spaces between her torso, limbs, and drapery make the marble look light.

On View

West Building Main Floor, East Sculpture Hall

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    marble

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 182.5 x 76.5 x 57.8 cm (71 7/8 x 30 1/8 x 22 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.133

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Château de la Muette, near Paris, until the late 19th century;[1] sold to (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Paris, New York, and London); Rodolphe Kann [d. 1905], Paris; (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold 20 November 1908 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[2] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] The owner of the château when the sculpture was sold to Wildenstein was the comte de Franqueville. The early provenance is given in Marc Furcy-Raynaud, ed., Inventaire des sculptures exécutées au XVIIIe siècle pour la direction des batiments du roi, Paris, 1927: 179.
[2] According to Widener card file in NGA curatorial records.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1873

  • Larousse, Pierre. La grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle vol. 10. Paris, 1873: 356.

1923

  • Réau, Louis. "Etudes sur la sculpture du XVIIIe siècle: Jean-Louis Lemoyne (1665-1755)." _ La revue de l'art ancien et moderne_ 43 (1923): 183-196, repro.

1927

  • Réau, Louis. Une dynastie de sculpteurs au XVIIe siècle: Les Lemoynes. Paris, 1927: 15-17, 30, 34, repro. no. 17.

1932

  • Réau, Louis. "Les compagnes de Diane." Gazette des beaux-arts 8 (1932): 136-154.

1948

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 132, repro., as Diana.

  • Swarzenski, Hanns. "Washington: Neuerwerbungen der Skulpturen Abteilung der National Gallery of Art." Pheobus 2 (1948): 38-42.

1949

  • Seymour, Charles. Masterpieces of Sculpture from the National Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1949: 182-183, note 50, repro. 154-157, as Diana.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 160, as Diana.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 142, repro., as Diana.

  • Raggio, Olga. "The Metropolitain Marbles." Art News 67: 46,48,49.

1972

  • Kalnein, Wend G., and Michael Levey. Art and Architecture of the Eighteenth Century in France. Harmondsworth, 1972: 48-49.

1973

  • Beaulieu, Michèle. "La Diane d'Anselme Flamen et ses compagnes." La Revue du Louvre 23 (1973): 83-88.

1979

  • Hodgkinson, Terence. "Companions of Diana at Cliveden." National Trust Studies (1979): 90-98.

1980

  • Rosasco, Betsy Jean. "Notes on Two Gabriel de Saint-Aubin Drawings and the Statues They Depict." Studies in the History of Art 8 (1980): 55-57, repro.

1981

  • Seinkewicz, Thomas J. Classical Gods and Heroes in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1981: 36, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 643, no. 1010, repro.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 301, repro.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 133, repro.

1999

  • Norman Herz, Katherine A. Holbrow and Shelley G. Sturman. "Marble Sculture in the National Gallery of Art: a Provenance Study." In Max Schvoerer, ed. Archéomatériaux: marbres et autres roches: ASMOSIA IV, Bordeaux, France 9-13 october 1995: actes de la IVème Conférence international de l’Association pour l’étude des marbres et autres roches utilizes dans le passé. Talence, 1999: 101-110.

2000

  • National Gallery of Art Special Issue. Connaissance des Arts. Paris, 2000:61.

2004

  • Gopnik, Blake. "A Very Full Week at the National Gallery: Five Full Days of Permanent Pleasure." The Washington Post (December 27, 2004): C1, C2, repro.

2008

  • Luchs, Alison. "A Marble Hunting Party: The Companions of Diana for Marly." In Collecting Sculpture in Early Modern Europe. Nicholas Penny and Eike D. Schmidt, eds. Studies in the History of Art, 70, Symposium Papers 47 (2008): 323-341, fig. 1, figs. 2-4 (details).

2011

  • Wardropper, Ian. _European sculpture, 1400-1900, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art _. New York, 2011: 165, repro. fig. 44.

2017

  • Luchs, Alison. “The Little Dancer in Wax and Words: Reading a Sonnet by Edgar Degas.” In Degas, Daphne Barbour and Suzanne Quillen Lomax, eds. Facture. Conservation, Science, Art History 3 (2017): 164, fig. 7, 172 n. 25.

2023

  • Dickerson, C.D. III and Robert Price. "Restoring Sculpture in Paris After and Before the French Revolution." Daphne Barbour, ed., Facture. Conservation, Science, Art History 6 (2023):120, 125, fig. 5, 136, 137 fig. 17 (detail), 138-140 fig. 18 (detail), 142.

Inscriptions

on pedestal, proper right: j.L. LEMOYNE. PARiSiNVS. FECIT. / 1724

Wikidata ID

Q63809783

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