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Two figures stand in a clearing near a wooded area under a moonlit sky

At center, a young woman with pale skin and long wavy brown hair stands facing us, dressed in a loose fitting white blouse and a long blue skirt. An older woman with medium dark skin, stands just behind her shoulder at left, wearing a red cloak over her head and shoulders. She gestures with one hand while leaning in to whisper into the ear of the younger woman, who looks downward with her mouth partly open and her hand held at her chest in front of her. They stand in a clearing near dense trees, as a cloud passes across the full moon in the night sky.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1939.95
People
Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña, French (Bordeaux 1807 - 1876 Menton)
Title
Le Malefice
Other Titles
Alternate Title: The Evil Spell / Two Women in a Landscape
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1875
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230644

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on cradled panel
Dimensions
31.7 x 24.2 cm (12 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l.: N. Diaz-75
  • inscription: on back of frame, in graphite: C2

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
M. Le Grand, sold [through Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 22, 1902]. [Edward Brandus, Paris], sold; to Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, 1903, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1939

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Grenville L. Winthrop, Class of 1886
Accession Year
1939
Object Number
1939.95
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • "Gift of Grenville L. Winthrop, Class of 1886", Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum, ed. Edward Waldo Forbes, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1939), vol. 9, no. 1, November, p. 19, p. 19
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 105; repr. no. 301

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu