Sea Nynphs bewailing dealth of Prometheus

(Henri Lehmann)

This is one of Lehmann’s most important compositions. The Sea Nynphs bewailing dealth of Prometheus, a beautiful pyramidal group of nude women, after the Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus, occupies the right of the rotunda in the middle of the galleries.

Bought by King Louis Philippe at the Salon for 3,000 francw; given to Prince Antoine d’Orleans, Duke of Montpensier (catalogued in his collection in Seville, no. 335)
to his daughter the Infanta Maria Isabel (1848-1919) Countess of Paris (on her marriage in 1864)
to her son Prince Ferdinand d’Orleans, Duke of Montpensier (1884-1924)
in 1924 to his widow, Maria Isabel Ibarreta, Duchess of Montpensier, 3rd Marquesa de Valdeterrazo & Grandee of Spain (1893-1958)
in 1958 to her second husband, Exc.mo. Jose Maria de Huarte y Jauregui, Marques viedo de Valdeterrazo (d.1969)
Private Collection 1969-1995

A. H. Delaunay, Catalogue Complet du Salon de 1846, Paris 1846, p. 76
A. Desplaces, ‘Interieurs d’ateliers, M. Henri Lehmann’, L’Artiste, vol. 33, pp. 85-87.
Arsene Houssaye, ‘Le Salon de 1846’, L’Artiste 1846, vol. 34, pp. 39-40

Admitted by the salon Jury (under no. P. 1637)
Archives of the Louvre, KK 17, KK 40)
Paris Salon 1846, no. 1143
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1874, no. 2843
Paris, 1889, Champ de Mars, Exposition Centralle des Beaux Arts.