Antonio Canova

oil on canvas, 105 x 81 cm

This painting addresses the theme of the Penitent Magdalen, a subject to which Canova devoted a celebrated sculpture, producing two versions of it in marble. The first, carved in 1796, was owned by Count Giovanni Battista Sommariva and is now in Genoa, while the second, a replica, was made in 1809 for the Viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais and can now be admired in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. 

Canova painted the picture between 1798 and 1799 while seeking refuge in his native Possagno, after Rome had been invaded by the French. Being deprived of the opportunity to sculpt during this brief spell in his life, he turned to painting, although it continued to be an absolutely private activity for him.