The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 18, 2024

The Good Samaritan

The Good Samaritan

1861
(French, 1822–1885)
publisher

Lemercier

France, Paris
lithograph
Image: 56.7 x 44.3 cm (22 5/16 x 17 7/16 in.)
Gift of Mrs. George A. Martin 1928.750
Catalogue raisonné: van Gelder 100
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Rodolphe Bresdin was known in his time as "Chien-Caillou" after the impoverished artist who served as the protagonist in an 1845 novel with the same title.

Description

This is a highly original treatment of the biblical story of a Jewish man who had been beaten, stripped, robbed, and left for dead, and the Samaritan who helped him. This kind act is all the more heroic considering the great hatred between the Samaritans and Jews (each claimed to be the exclusive descendants of Abraham and Moses). The small scene in the center of the large sheet is surrounded by an exuberant landscape teeming with an unrealistic assortment of tropical and nontropical plants and a variety of peering animals. Bresdin used a pen and lithographic ink to detail the fauna and flora of his extraordinary imagination. However, these bizarre visions were appreciated during his lifetime by only a select circle primarily comprising inventive writers such as Victor Hugo (1802–1885) and Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867).
  • "Some Phases of the Romantic Movement." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 16, no. 3 (March 1929): 43-46, 49-51 Mentioned: p. 46; Reproduced: p. 49 www.jstor.org
    Catalogue of an exhibition of the art of lithography: commemorating the sesquicentennial of its invention, 1798-1948. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, November 11, 1948-January 2, 1949. Mentioned: p. 22 archive.org
  • Inventive Impressions: 18th- and 19-Century French Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001).
    The Cleveland Museum of Art; 8/26/01-10/28/01. "Inventive Impressions: 18th- and 19th-Century French Prints," no catalogue.
    Symbolist Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-January 12, 1992).
    Animals as Romantic Icons in French Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 6-July 27, 1986).
    Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
    Prints of the Fifteenth to Twentieth Century from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 5-September 12, 1934).
    French Art Since Eighteen Hundred. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 8-December 8, 1929).
  • {{cite web|title=The Good Samaritan|url=false|author=Rodolphe Bresdin, Lemercier|year=1861|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1928.750