Style Napoleon III / Ref.03131

Diana, enamel by Jeanne Lemerle

The figure of Diana, standing, fills the length of the painting. Totally nude, she leans on a rock, upon which her towel is thrown; the sway of her hips creates a curved line breaking the rigidity of the vertical format. She holds her bow in her left hand, has a moon crescent on her forehead and one of her dogs at her side.
For this painting, Jeanne Lemerle chose the theme of Diana resting in a wild rocky landscape, through which water flows. The proximity of the water and her total nudity implies she is about to bathe, or just has. The title of the painting first comes as a surprise because besides the dog, the discreet bow and half moon, no other elements indicate Diana’s hunter identity. As she did with her Daphnis and Chloe painting, Jeanne Lemerle was fond of reinterpreting classical themes.
Exhibited at the Salon de Beaux Arts of 1909, along with an enamel portrait, this piece testifies to Jeanne Lemerle’s participation in the artistic life of her times, three years after she was married and had left her father’s workshop.

Daughter of Jupiter and Latona (Leto), twin of Apollo, Diana (or Artemis) remained a virgin and spent her time hunting. Usually depicted dressed in a knee length tunic and armed with a quiver of arrows and a bow, she roams the wilderness with her dogs and her handmaidens the Nymphs, all as pure and chaste as she. She also loves to rest by a source of water, bathing alone or with her entourage. Diana’s bath is associated with the myth of Actaeon, a young hunter who was turned into a stag as punishment for the crime of having seen her naked.