Theodore Chasseriau - Rediscovered works

Some works by the French Romantic painter Theodore Chasseriau have reappear ed in recent years. Undoubtedly the most important among them is an oil on canvas, Mary Stuart swearing revenge (Claus Virch Collection, New York), po rtraying a tragic episode in the life of the unhappy Queen of Scots. This s ensitive yet elegant painting, perhaps an evocation of Schiller's tragedy, is directly related to another in the Musee des Beaux-Arts at La Rochelle. The newly discovered works also include four studies to his Italian journey , 1840-41: two portraits, one early, the other late, both in pencil; a stud y of Saint John for the Deposition, a large-scale altarpiece in St. Etienne church; and a study of a horse's head.