François Joseph Navez (Belgian 1787 - 1869)
Help is coming
oil on panel
signed (lower right)
image size 53 x 42 cm., frame size 79 x 67 cm.

Condition: Varnish yellowed, frame abrasions and very fine stable craquelure in places, blistering of the varnish layer in the upper right area, some scattered retouchings. Framed in a gilded frame.

Notes: Navez likely drew his inspiration for this painting from Théodore Géricault’s large-scale work 'The Raft of the Medusa' (1819). When exhibited that same year at the Paris Salon, Géricault’s painting caused a sensation and a provocation alike, as it was based on a true historical event that reflected poorly on France.

In 1816, France sought to regain possession of its West African colony Senegal and dispatched four ships, among them the Méduse, commanded by the highly decorated but inexperienced Captain Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys (1763–1841). Due to navigational errors, the ship—carrying around 400 people—ran aground on a sandbank. Lacking sufficient lifeboats, the captain ordered the construction of a raft from ship timbers to hold 149 people, which the boats were to tow to shore. The plan failed: the lifeboats cut the ropes, leaving the raft adrift and under-provisioned at sea. It became a symbol of human tragedy—of the 149 people aboard, only ten ultimately survived.

How closely Navez was connected to this event is shown by a preliminary study made by Géricault based on reports of the disaster, though not used in his final work. It depicts an exhausted young family with a small child, a motif Navez integrated into his own painting. This is unsurprising, as Géricault and Navez were both in Rome at the same time and part of the artist circle surrounding the Villa Medici.


Provenance:
Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 8 November 1994, lot 198.
Acquired at the above by the family of the present owner.

Est: € 2000-3000