Lady Reading the Letters of Heloise and Abelard
c. 1780
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
81.3 × 64.8 cm (32 × 25 1/2 in.); Framed: 105.5 × 89.9 × 11.5 cm (41 1/2 × 35 3/8 × 4 1/2 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
133859
Art Historical Context
This evocative oil on canvas by Bernard d'Agescy, painted around 1780, depicts a solitary woman absorbed in the famous letters exchanged between the medieval lovers Peter Abelard and Heloise. The composition invites viewers into a private moment of reflection, highlighting the timeless power of written words to stir emotion and imagination. Measuring just over 32 by 25 inches, the intimate scale encourages close looking, much as the figure herself leans into her reading. The subject draws on a story that fascinated audiences in the late eighteenth century. The tragic twelfth-century romance o...