Jean Dupas                THE SALON DE L'ARGENTERIE MURAL&nb

Jean Dupas                THE SALON DE L'ARGENTERIE MURAL 1938-40 - depicting allegorical figures including representations of the Zodiac, designed for architectural placementpainted area 352cm.via: Sotheby’sWhen a fire destroyed the Royal Palace of Bucharest in 1927, levelling all but a staircase, Queen Marie immediately undertook a programme of rebuilding. The work was largely completed during the reign of her son, Carol II, resulting in a vast Neoclassical structure decorated by the finest international designers. Among those commissioned was Jean Dupas, whose famous murals for the French Line’s Normandie debuted in 1935. For the palace, Dupas was asked to design and execute the ceiling and archway murals of the Salon de l'Argenterie.Dupas’ relationship with the Royal Household was a tempestuous one, however, and work progressed slowly. A dispute over the terms of payment meant that the artist took up an important commission in Bordeaux rather than proceed with the Bucharest ceiling; as a result, he was far from finished when the physical building was completed in 1937. Though a full-colour model of the entire scheme existed, by 1940 only a portion of the work, presumably including this archway, had been completed. Dupas was still negotiating as late as February of that year, but the German invasion of France in May, followed by the abdication of Carol II in September, meant that the commission went permanently unfulfilled. The palace itself was badly damaged by bombing in August 1944, and though later rebuilt, the Dupas mural remained with the artist’s family. -- source link

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