1843 -1871 · Rome, Spain, Tangier and orientalism

Brilliant color, theatricality and suspended violence make Henri Regnault a prodigy of French orientalism, who died at the age of twenty-seven.

Henri Regnault was born in Paris in 1843 into a learned family: his father, Victor Regnault, was a recognized physicist and photographer. A student of Louis Lamothe then Alexandre Cabanel, the young painter acquired a solid mastery of academic drawing while developing a pronounced taste for color and spectacle. After several attempts, he won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1866 with Thétis bringing Achilles the weapons forged by Vulcan. A resident of the Villa Medici, he nevertheless refused to limit his apprenticeship to Italy. Spain, then in the midst of political agitation, offered him Velazquez, Granada, the Alhambra and the equestrian portrait of General Juan Prim. He gets the exceptional authorization to continue his research beyond Rome, then discover Tangier and North Africa. There, harsh light, Hispano-Moorish architecture, fabrics and local legends nourish a painting where documentary accuracy fades in the face of dramatic intensity. Execution without judgment under the Moorish kings of Granada, completed in 1870, shows an executioner wiping his saber at the top of a staircase, while the decapitated body slides out of the field. Execution without judgment under the Moorish kings of Granada, completed in 1870, shows an executioner wiping his saber at the top of a staircase, while the decapitated body slides out of the field. Execution without judgment under the Moorish kings of Granada, completed in 1870, shows an executioner wiping his saber at the top of a staircase, while the decapitated body slides out of the field. The vertical narrowness, the red of the blood and the whiteness of the wall produce a violence all the stronger as it is retained. Salomé, presented at the Salon of 1870, produces a violence that is all the stronger as it is retained. Salomé, presented at the Salon of 18 young woman stares at the viewer; clothes, tray and hair announce the biblical drama without directly representing it. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out, Regnault returned to France and joined the National Guard. He was killed at the Battle of Buzenval in January 1871. His death at the age of twenty-seven quickly transformed the painter into a symbol of a sacrificed generation. The rare completed works, however, testify to a real maturity, capable of uniting academic drawing, Spanish color and almost cinematographic staging. The rare completed works nevertheless testify to a real maturity, capable of uniting academic drawing, Spanish color and almost cinematographic staging. The "Henri Regnault" selection notably compares Execution without judgment under the Moorish kings of Granada and Salomé. Its reading favors details.

Regnault places the spectator just after or just before the act: a sword wiped, a tray held and a look are enough to make the whole drama weigh outside the frame.