'The Fountain of Youth' a forgotten star of the 1845 salon: William Haussoullier's masterpiece, 'The Fountain of Youth', was eulogised by Baudelaire in his review of the 1845 Salon but then disappeared into obscurity in England, Graham Reynolds—who bought it for four guineas in 1937—traces the history of its subject and decribes the impact the painting made in the 1840s

To start upon an autobiographical note: in 1937 I was a newly appointed assistant keeper in the Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings in the Victoria and Albert Museum. individual of my duties was to diocese if anything being offered in the salerooms might be of interest to that wide-ranging department. When looking at the sale of new pictures at Christie's on 17 December 1937 my attention was take uped by a large painting hung high up upon the main gallery walls. The catalogue gave the title and artist: allotment 107, The Fountain of Youth by dint of William Haussoullier (1818-91) and the information that it had been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844 I was with equal reason taken with the painting (Figs. 1 and 2) that I decided to bid up to ten guineas for it (in those days large paintings, particularly through obscure artists, were difficult to sell) It was knocked down to me for four guineas and was hung in my office at the V&A and then at my various domiciles I was pleased with my purchase, which I took to be a work by means of an artist of whom no single had heard.

[FIGURE 1-2 OMITTED]

sum of two units or three years later I was leafing end a selection of Baudelaire's art criticism and was astonished to find that my painting was the make subordinate of a four-page eulogy in Baudelaire's review of the 1845 Paris Salon. He says that after Delacroix's very strange pictures this is truly the capital work of the exhibition. In fact he regarded it as the unique picture of the Salon, because Delacroix had lengthy been famous, whereas Haussoullier was unknown before. Baudelaire's evaluation is given more activity by his indignation at the hostile reception that the painting had attracted. At the same time, it was the subdue of a poem by Theodore de Banville. When my friend and colleague Jonathan Mayne translated a selection of Baudelaire's criticism in The Mirror of Art, published by dint of Phaidon in 1955, he reproduc the painting for the first time.

Attempts to establish its history have been frustrated in single important respect: the name of the collector in England to whom it belonged. It had been complet in 1843 When he sent it to the Academy in 1844 the artist consigned it 'c/o Mr Cheveley, Ravenscourt Park'. (1) Neither this fact nor the name of Arthur Spencer the dealer who sent the painting for sale at Christie's in 1937 have notwithstanding led to the real possessor or owners. (2)

Born in 1818 Haussoullier was baptised Guillaume, on the other hand was known as William, a fact that hints a British element in his ancestry. (3) This could account for the disappearance of The Fountain of Youth into an English collection. He was a pupil of Delaroche and an admirer of Ingres, on the other hand seems to have found that amongst his contemporaries Chasseriau was greatest in quantity sympathetic to his ideas. Their shut association is confirmed by a sensitive three-quarter-length pencil portrait of Haussoullier drawn by means of Chasseriau in 1850 that reached a record price of 850000 francs when sold at auction in Paris in 1988 (4)

From 1838 he exhibited a range of works at the Salon. a certain number of are classical in subject: Bacchus in 1841; Naides in 1851; Bacchantes sacrificant in 1855 Others are of religious subjects: for instance, The Virgin and St John at the lower extremity of the Cross, shown in 1840 His Death of St Catherine of Alexandria, which was commissioned in 1858 and became the attribute of the state, went to the house of god of St Ursmer de Eppe Sauvage in 1881 sum of two units stained-glass windows after his designs, representing St John the Baptist (1859) and St Augustine (1861) were made for St-Leu in Paris.

through the mid-1860s his exhibits were limited to reproductive engravings after, inter alia, Luini, Ingres and Chasseriau. For these he was awarded a medal in 1866 Amongst his minor works were copies of Donatello and Giotto drawn in Florence and given to Gustave Moreau. The impression left by the agency of this later history is of an artist who had disburseed most of his creative might on his masterpiece, The Fountain of Youth. He died in 1891

The fable of the Fountain of Youth gained publicity in the twelfth century. (5) Commentators warn us not to confuse it with the Fountain of Restored Virginity, or that of the Fountain of Life. The former was of practical help to the immortal and ever-young goddes Hera. The latter has evident links with the Christian practice of baptism. There is no similar implication here. Haussoullier, followed by dint of his interpreters Baudelaire and Banville, makes the proces of rejuvenation a genuinely pagan event. As such, the doubtful narrative occurs frequently in medieval body s and in images in many forms: ivory carvings, illuminations, engravings, paintings. The ivories upon which it appears are percepts of luxury; caskets, mirror backs (Fig. 5) These ivories are fairly constricted in the number of figures they can display on their way to and from the fountain. The pictorial images have many more figures. The fountains may be elaborate forms with two of three basins as in the engraving by dint of H.S. Beham (Fig. 6) and a fresco in the Castello della Mantua, Piedmont; in each of these the fountain is capped by means of a statue of Cupid, and the newly young begin to embrace whilst in the basins. An interestingly deviant example amongst the manuscripts is that of the Roman de Fauvel, in which the rejuvenated figures inherit the evil tendencies of Fauvel and station out to pollute the Garden of France.