Portrait of Ary Scheffer

The women of Souli

This painting is a small copy of Scheffers mother to an original work from 1827 of her son, Ary Scheffer. Shown is a dramatic event in the Greek struggle for freedom. In 1803 Souli Greeks revolted against the Turks. The women from the region waited on a rock platform and watched the battle. When the Greeks lost, their wives decided to commit collective suicide, rather than fall into the hands of the enemy. The choice of this topic Scheffer referred to the great Greek revolt that erupted in 1821 and received many international sympathies'.

Miniature portraits of her family

Top left: Johanna van Es (overl.1801) - her mother

round, ø 6.6 cm

Bottom left: Ary Scheffer at around 15-year-old age - the oldest son

oval, 7.8 x 6.3 cm

Central (above): Ary Scheffer at around the age of 2

oval, 8 x 7.3 cm

Central (middle): Self Portrait from 1795

oval, 7.8 x 6.3 cm

Central (below): Arnoldus Charles Scheffer at around the age of 2 - the second son

oval, 5.5 x 3.9 cm

Right: Arie Lamme (1748-1801) - her father

oval, 8 x 7.3 cm

Bottom right: Johan Bernhard Scheffer (1765-1809) - her husband - 1795

oval, 7.5 x 6.7 cm

Lenore - The dead drive fast

This oil sketch was a preliminary study for a painting inspired by the ballad Lenore (1774) of the German poet Bürger. It is Scheffers most romantic work. Lenore saw that her Wilhelm was not returned from the war. She cursed God and wished to die. In the evening she heard clop and a rider appeared. She thought that Wilhelm was distraught and went with him. On the way the rider made her afraid to tease: "Hurra! They addressed "Die Toten Reiten schnell! " They rode to the cemetery, which showed that with Lenore was ride along with Death. The graves opened themselves and the dead locked them in.

The three brothers Scheffer in a landscape

Self portrait

At the height of his fame Scheffer painted this portrait. It was a gift for his mother to mark her birthday on April 23, 1838. Another portrait, painted two years earlier, bears the inscription 'Ary April 23, 1836. Both self, the artist had a strong relationship with his mother Cornelia Scheffer-Lamme.

Mignon desires her fatherland

At the Salon of 1839 Scheffer exhibited two paintings with Mignon, the Italian girl from the famous book Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795) of the German poet Goethe. The other painting was called Mignon Anxious to heaven. Scheffers daughter Cornelia was probably a model for the girl. The work shown here was not at the Salon. Scheffer painted more than one version of both Mignons.

Portrait of Cornelia with dog

Scheffers daughter Cornelia was born in 1830. About her mother nothing is unknown. Initially, she was raised in the Countryside. From 1837 Scheffers mother took care of the girl itself. When this portrait was painted, Cornelia was only ten years old. Five years later she married the much older doctor Rene Marjolin. Cornelia donated  in 1862 a large part of the legacy of her father's studio to the Dordrechts Museum. When she died in 1899, the Dordrechts  Museum came in possession of a unique collection: over 100 paintings, 300 drawings and 200 engravings and lithographs.

Cornelia Scheffer-Lamme on her deathbed

With the death of Cornelia Scheffer-Lamme on July 4, 1839 Scheffer lost not only his mother, but also a woman with whom he could talk of art and literature and an employee in his art-company. In a letter to his uncle Arnoldus Lamme, he wrote: 'My gansche leeven was zooals u wel weet, gansch en al verknogt aan het weezen van mijn lieve moeder "
(My whole life was, as you know,  Scheffer made the portrait of two sections, so it could be closed.

The sorrows of the earth is rising to heaven and turned into hope and happiness

Ary Scheffer painted mainly romantic history pieces, often based on episodes from the Bible or German poems by Goethe. A commonly recurring theme is the consolation that religion can offer, as in this painting. But unlike most religious works Scheffers is not Christ, but Maria's comfort of the sad. The painting was commissioned in 1847. Scheffer kept the composition until his death in his studio and improved it Countless times. Some figures from earlier paintings, such as Paolo and Francesca, Dante and Beatrice and Mary Magdalene, is again shown. This painting can be seen as a summary of Scheffers oeuvre.

This is the first work of Scheffer that was exhibited in Dordrecht. The painting bore in 1854 many sensational reactions. So wrote an uncle of the artist in a letter: "A priest came to see it with his pious true friend, when he came in to the exhibition room he saw it from far and gave a terrible scream. With both hands before his eyes he cried, it is a disgrace and flew away. Her husband looked so appalled because Eve was was completely naked. " The two women personalize a contemplative and a materialistic lifestyle. One woman, the heavenly Venus, the other the terrestrial Venus. The theme refers to the Symposium of Plato.

Portrait of Mrs. Place

In this particular portrait of Mrs. Place, the wife of the diplomat Victor Place, Scheffer showed a great society painter. Scheffer painted portraits on commission, but was - remarkably enough - turn them in his possession. The reason appears in a letter to Scheffer in 1856 to his nephew where he wrote: "Mr. Place has suddenly lost all his fortune and I had left the money in his hands, there is chance that the paintings will come back in my possession.

Jacob and the Angel

The fight between Jacob and the angel is described in Genesis. Scheffer focused entirely on the two figures. Left the Angel and right Jacob. The scene has a long tradition in art. In the romance theme symbolizes the struggle of the artist with his vocation. Probably imagined Scheffer in this work the struggle of man with his faith. Because Scheffer never completed the painting is easy to see how he went to work. About a primer of chalk, glue and linseed oil he outlined the performance. For the shadow he painted the thin and the flesh-color slightly thicker.

Christ in Gethsemane

This painting brought Scheffer at the Salon Exhibition less success than other works on previous Salons. The criticism was that Christ was depicted suffering as a human. Another critic felt that the presence of an angel is detrimental to the expression of sorrow.

Portrait of Frédéric Chopin

The famous musician Frédéric Chopin was born in 1810 in Poland. In 1831 he came to Paris. He had a close friendship with the composer Liszt and the French painter Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), both acquaintances of Scheffer. In April 1847 Chopin posed for Scheffer. Scheffer portrayed him as an aristocrat and a sensitive intellectual. He made several versions of the portrait. The principal he gave to Chopin. The work shown here is a copy, which the painter probably made himself.

Portrait of Marie Princess of Orléans

From her childhood Princess Marie of Orleans got drawing lessons from Scheffer. Later he accompanied her to the sculpture, which was better. Scheffer made a sober, penetrating portrait of his pupil. He did not painted her as Marie King's daughter, but as an artist, sitting in an unfinished sculpture. The portrait is an important asset, especially because in the museum's collection alongside the work of Scheffer a number of sketches and plaster models from the hand of Marie is in possession of the museum.

The women of Souli

Since the late Middle Ages, Greece had been part of the Turkish Empire, but in 1821 a rebellion broke out. Not long before the Greek people, Soulioten, resisted  themselves against the Turkish sultan. Their army was defeated by destroying one of the vassals of the sultan. The Souliotic women were on a rock from which they had seen the battle. They faced a desperate dilemma, coming in the hands of the enemy or put an end to their lives. They committed collective suicide by singing and dancing into the abyss.  Scheffer depicted two moments from the story. Some women looks in the distance how their men are being slaughtered and how the Turks come closer. At the right side of the painting the time has already passed a little, since women are already at the point jumping into the abyss. The composition leads the eye to the right, to the women who nearly jumped down. Many of them cover their arms to the left. Left is the life which they are attached, to the right is death which they have chosen.

Count Eberhard von Würtemberg cuts the table-linen in two parts

Christ Consolator

The Dutch artist Ary Scheffer depicted Christ in his role as consolator, or comforter, surrounded by the oppressed (right) and those suffering pain or grief (left). The painting is based on a biblical passage, which is rendered on the frame in French. The work received considerable praise in 1837 at the Paris Salon. Scheffer's smoothly executed artworks were usually well received at this annual exhibition of academic art.

Mrs Robert Hollond

Ellen Julia Teed (1822 - 1884), married Robert Hollond, MP for Hastings, in 1840. She was an authoress and philanthropist, and held a salon in Paris which attracted the leading Liberals of the day. She presented Boucher's 'Pan and Syrinx' to the National Gallery in 1880.

The Sister of Mercy

Mother and Child

Margaret at the Fountain

Portrait of a Child

The Return of the Prodigal Son

Charles Dickens

The Holy Women at the Sepulichre

Scene depicting the dead body of Christ wrapped in a shroud by grieving women. The Virgin Mary lies across the body of Christ with her arms about his shoulders to right, Mary Magdalen to left holds up the edge of the white shroud. Two more women in the background to right, one clasping her hands in prayer, the other with her hand over her face. Dark background.

Abel Francois Villeman

Félicie de Fauveau

The Souliot Women 

Saint Augustine and his mother, St Monica

The subject is taken from Saint Augustine's 'Confessions' (Book 10), and depicts Saint Augustine and his mother Saint Monica discussing the Kingdom of Heaven. Shortly afterwards Saint Monica died. This is one of several replicas of Scheffer's most popular picture. The original, finished about 1845, showed the painter's own mother as the model for Saint Monica. In this version the model is said to have been Mrs Hollond

Géricault's death

After a long agony, Géricault died after a fall from his horse on 26 January 1824. At his bedside, are his friends Colonel Bro de Comère and the painter Pierre-Joseph Dedreux-Dorcy. The wall of the chamber is lined with sketches of the master.

The temptation of Christ

This large canvas has occupied the last ten years of the life Scheffer. Numerous expansions and repentirs clearly show the continuous changes that the artist has made to its composition. Only the face of Christ, a soft loan metaphysics, has never been touched by the painter.

Women Souliotis

After their husbands were defeated by the troops of Ali, pacha of Janina, they take the desition to rush from the top of the rocks.

The shadows of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta appears to Dante and Virgil

Charlemagne (Charles the Great) receives a paderborn submission of Witkind in 785

 The Duke of Orleans welcomes the barrier of the throne, 1st Regiment of Hussars, controlled by the Duke of Chartres on August 4, 1830

La Fayette (1757-1834) on his deathbed (20 May 1834)

Marquis de La Fayette, corpse, lying on his back, place of death Blérancourt.

Frederic Chopin 1810-1849

The young patient

Death of Gaston de Foix in the Battle of Ravenna on 11 April 1512

In this sketch for a painting now in the palace at Versailles, Scheffer took as his subject an episode from French national history, prompted by the Romantic battle against the dominant cult of Classical themes. Nephew to Louis XII, Gaston de Foix (1488-1512) led the French army into Italy and gained fame for his achievements. After decisive victory in the battle near Ravenna, Gaston chased the retreating enemy but received a fatal wound in the process. Unlike Neoclassical artists, who treated the death of the hero as an example of noble self-sacrifice for the sake of one's native land, Scheffer interprets the death of Gaston not as a panegyric to civil virtue, but as the tragic end to the life of a real individual, a chance victim of fate. Scheffer's sketch marvellously conveys the drama of the event, with its temperamental painting style, the daring broad strokes of colour and emotionally intense colouring.

Marguerite Leaving Church

The Death of Saint Louis

The Last Communion of Saint Louis

Dante and Beatrice

Beatrice, the Italian poet Dante's beloved, serves as his guide through Paradise in his epic poem, The Divine Comedy (1321). The verses from the poem that Scheffer illustrates are written on the frame and translate as follows: "And, of a sudden, meseemed that day was added / unto day, as though he who hath the power, / had adorned heaven with a second sun. Beatrice was standing with her eyes all fixed / upon the eternal wheels, and I fixed my sight / removed from there above, on her."

Greek Women Imploring at the Virgin of Assistance

Faust and Marguerite in the Garden

Portrait of General Lafayette (1757-1834)

Full-length, in a great coat over a stripped waistcoat, holding a hat and a stick.

Macbeth and the Witches

A Portrait of a young woman

This statue is dedicated to the Dordtsche painter, Ary Scheffer (1795-1851) and is situated on the Scheffers-square in Dordrecht