Alexandre Cabanel

For the Salon of 1875, Cabanel prepared a canvas depicting a dramatic episode in the biblical tale of Tamar and Absalom (Musée d'Orsay, Paris, on deposit at the Musée des beaux-arts, Nice). This scene illustrating a passage from the Old Testament (2 Samuel 13) allowed Cabanel to exercise his aptitude for textiles and interiors, as well as for portraiture and the expressive use of the body. The artist chose a highly emotional moment from the story. The virgin Tamar, daughter of King David, has just been raped by her half-brother Amnon and cast out of his house. She is distraught and has fled to the rooms of her brother Absalom who comforts her and vows to take revenge. Two years later, he kills Amnon at a feast.
In this early idea for the canvas, we see the general disposition of figures in an interior has been established. However, Absalom's right arm remains at his side, and his hand balled into a tight fist to indicate his rage. Cabanel would change this gesture in the painting where Absalom reaches out with his palm up and fingers curling as he gazes into the distance envisioning his revenge. The interior in the painting was expanded to situate the figures deeper in the room and to add a window at left instead of the enfilade of doorways at right in the study. The most striking difference in the painting is the later addition of a black female attendant in the right background. She wears a scarf wrapped around her head and fabric around her waist, but her torso is bare. Her arms are raised and pressed against the wall, suggesting a state of anguish in response to Tamar's distraught pose with her arms extended, fingers entwined, and her head buried in shame.
The state purchased the painting at the 1875 Salon for the Musée du Luxembourg. The composition was also known through an 1878 lithograph printed by Charles Baude for "The chefs-d'oeuvre d'art of the International exhibition," 1878, a publication by the American Edward Strahan (the pseudonym of Earl Shinn). A lithograph printed in color, capturing the rich jewel tones of the painting, was published in "Le Petit Journal" on 4 February 1893. The appeal of Cabanel's canvas inspired numerous copies by his followers and admirers.