Artist: David Courtois (French, dates unknown). "Enterrement d'Atala". Oil on mahogany panel. Signed lower left. Label with artist & title in French, verso. Dimensions: 8" x 10"; framed: 12" x 14". This dramatic and finely executed painting is signed David Courtois on the front and appears to be a copy of a Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois 1892 engraving of the Burial of Atala. The French artist, Giordet, also painted this subject matter and that work resides in the Louvre Museum collection. The painting is based upon a popular French novel by Chateaubriand that loosely retells the story of Romeo and Juliet in a New World setting. Here we see Chactas, a Natchez Indian, mourning his beloved Atala, a half Native American, half European maiden, who has committed suicide to keep from breaking the vow of chastity she had made to her dying mother. This painting is from the Thomas and Teresa Russell collection of overlooked American region artists assembled in the 1970’s.

Good

12 x 14 in

1.5 lb