Aeneas Meeting Dido at Carthage
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839–1906)
Aeneas Meeting Dido at Carthage, 1873–76
Pencil
22.9 x 30.5 cm. (9 x 12 in.)
Inscribed verso: Affecteux souvenir de Paul Cezanne 1915; and: Don de Mr Bret 1922
Provenance
Artist’s son, Paul Cézanne (1872–1947), Paris; given as gift, probably to M. Bret, Paris, ca. 1915. Unknown physician, from 1922. [Galerie Baugin, Paris, by 1951]; sold to Henry Pearlman, ca. 1953; Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, 1983.
Critical Perspective
Like the adjoining watercolor, this drawing represents the episode from Book II of Virgil’s Aeneid, in which the Trojan hero Aeneas, shipwrecked off the coast of Carthage, meets its queen, Dido. As Aeneas recounts his misfortunes to Dido, he describes searching for his wife, Creusa, who died in the destruction of Troy, and encountering her ghost. In both works, Cézanne included Creusa as the mysterious shrouded figure standing next to the helmeted Aeneas.