03 — ARTWORK
The Toilet of Esther
- MEDIUM
- Oil on canvas, 45,5 x 35,5 cm
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
HOVER OR TAP A SWATCH FOR NAME, SHARE AND HEX. SAMPLED FROM THE IMAGE — INDICATIVE, NOT A PIGMENT ANALYSIS.
THIS REPRODUCTION
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CURRENT LOCATION · Musée du Louvre
- FILE
- 850 × 1031 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
Esther, a young Jewess chosen by the Persian king Ahasuerus to be his wife, prepares herself to go to him to plead that he save the Jews of the kingdom whom his grand vizier intends to massacre.
The biblical theme serves only a pretext for painting a colourful Oriental scene. In this work Chassérieau seeks the synthesis between a typical Ingres-style theme and the kind of handling used by Delacroix. Hence his Esther resembles oriental women with the curves and arabesques that his teacher Ingres would have preferred, whereas the fabrics and precious articles are treated in the manner of Delacroix.
The painting was one of Chassériau's masterpieces exhibited at the SalonIn the French language of the 18th and 19th centuries it designated an actual exhibition space, as well as the academic art exhibitions staged in the Salon d'Apollon of the Louvre since 1667. From 1737, the exhibitions took place biennially and, after the French Revolution, annually in the Salon Carré of the Louvre in Paris. Towards the end of the 19th century the official Salon jury was dissolved in order to make way for a committee of state-approved artists, i.e. former Salon members, who created the highly influential Société des Artistes Français. of 1842.
OTHER WORKS BY THÉODORE CHASSÉRIAU
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-rf5777c48e87e3f,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {The Toilet of Esther by CHASSÉRIAU, Théodore},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-14},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/chassriau-thodore-r5b9a388e30b33c/the-toilet-of-esther-rf5777c48e87e3f},
urldate = {2026-09-14},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-14. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.