| Chloé | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Jules Lefebvre |
| Year | 1875 (1875) |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 260 cm × 139 cm (100 in × 55 in) |
| Location | Young and Jackson Hotel,Melbourne |
Chloé is an 1875 oil painting by French academic painterJules Lefebvre. Measuring 260 cm by 139 cm, it depicts thenaiad in "Mnasyle et Chloé",[1] a poem by the 18th-century French poetAndré Chénier.[2]
The painting hangs in theYoung and Jackson Hotel inMelbourne, Australia, where it has been since 1909.[3] One of the most popular paintings on display in Melbourne,Chloé is considered an icon of the city, and was the mascot of theRoyal Navy frigateHMAS Melbourne.[4]
Chloé made its debut at theParis Salon of 1875, where it drew critical praise. It was subsequently displayed in Australia at the1879 Sydney International Exhibition and theMelbourne International Exhibition.[2]
Chloé was then purchased by Dr Thomas Fitzgerald ofLonsdale Street, Melbourne, for 850guineas.[4] In 1883, Fitzgerald loaned the painting to theNational Gallery of Victoria, which had recently opened on Sundays for the first time. As the only full femalenude on display at the gallery,Chloé drew criticism from advocates ofSabbatarianism, so it was taken down after only three weeks.[5][6] In response, members of the bohemian artists' society, theBuonarotti Club, protested to the press, including artistAlexander Colquhoun, who wrote satirical verse urging the gallery to rehang the painting.[7]
Upon Fitzgerald's death in 1908, the painting was purchased at auction by Henry Figsby Young, owner of theYoung and Jackson Hotel.[4] In 1908, Young installed the painting in the hotel's saloon bar.[4]Chloé is to remain part of the hotel indefinitely, as decided by theNational Trust and Heritage of Victoria in 1988.[8]
Chloé captivated many soldiers who frequented the bar of Young and Jackson's Hotel duringWorld War I,World War II, theKorean War and theVietnam War. Letters were addressed to her from the trenches in Turkey, France, and Papua New Guinea, promising to return to her. American soldiers even went as far as coming up with a plan to abduct her.[4]
The model who posed for the painting has been the subject of much speculation and mythologising, with many accounts depicting her as having had a love affair with Lefebvre, and committing suicide after he declined to marry her. Such stories are believed to be the result of many decades of bar-room gossip at the Young and Jackson Hotel.[2]
An ardent admirer ofChloé since its debut at the 1875 Paris Salon, American journalistLucy Hamilton Hooper travelled to Lefebvre's studio to ask him about the painting. She quoted him as saying that, after completing the painting, he traveled abroad for a few months, and on his return learned that the model had died:[2]
She was a girl of more refinement and elevation of sentiment than is usually to be found among persons of her position, and, being in the hands of a gang of low confederates, they had attempted to force her into a way of life from which her soul revolted. Thus driven to despair, the poor child poisoned herself by washing phosphorus from friction matches, and then swallowing the decoction.
The only other first-hand account of the model, and her possible identity, is Irish writerGeorge Moore's in his 1886 memoirConfessions of a Young Man. According to Moore, the model's name was Marie, and he met her through theSymbolist painterLouis Welden Hawkins. According to Moore, "no one knew why" the model committed suicide, but said there were rumours it was due to unrequited love.[2]
Mention was made inThe Argus on 5 March 1887 of another painting of Chloé at the second annual exhibition of theAustralian Artists' Association at Buxton's art gallery inSwanston Street;
Mr. J. C. Waite sends in a ... half-length figure entitledChloe, which is stated to be a portrait of the young lady who sat to M. Lefebvre as a model for the picture of the same name. It is a charming head and face, with the roundness, freshness, and bloom of youth in the countenance, and a look of innocence and simplicity, which is not always associated with the female models of Parisian artists.[9]
On the basis of that report researcher Katrina Kell surmises that if the painting, like others in the Association's exhibition, had "been done during the last six months" as stated at the opening, then Chloé may have lived, and been painted by Waite, in Melbourne.[10]
In 1908 the same artist, James Clarke Waite, who had studied for a year in Paris,[11] showed (likely the same) "charming portrait of the model who sat for the much discussed pictureChloé" of which theHerald newspaper assures readers "who have objection to studies in the nude, will be pleased to learn that in this work Chloe appears fully clothed in modern dress."[12] A 1914Herald report of exhibitions by Waite notes the success of his show at theAthenaeum with purchases made "by Mr [Henry Figsby] Young, who, years ago, bought Lefevre's [sic]Chloe, the property of the late Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, and has now purchased Mr Waite's portrait of the same beautiful French girl."[13] The painting is not known to have survived in Young's possession as many of Waite's paintings were reportedly destroyed[14] five years after his death in a fire at theMelbourne Town Hall in 1925.[15]
On Friday, 24 September 2004, at 8:30 pm, a hotel patron fell against the painting and caused long vertical cracks in its 5-millimetre (0.2 in)-thick protective glass.[16] Art experts said the damage was minor and would not affect the overall value of the painting.[16] It was repaired at the Ian Potter Conservation Centre in theIan Potter Museum of Art in Melbourne, where it waited for protective German glass to be imported, and was restored to the hotel bar on 13 October 2004.[17]
