I had the good fortune of seeing this painting by Thomas Couture in the conservation area of the National Gallery a few months ago as it was being restored by Fiona Beckett. It caught my eye immediately, it is a big canvas, full of colour and quite interesting as a subject.
I am happy to read in our local newspaper that it is now on display at the National Gallery in Ottawa.
It underwent a restoration as is explained here by Stephen Gritt one of our outstanding curators at the NGC. He is the one who discovered in the vault of the museum a forgotten Titian thought to be a copy. Through his studies of the painting he was able to establish that it was an original and saved it from the garbage can.
The Souper à la Maison d'Or it is also known as Each party has its end by Thomas Couture was painted in 1855. It is now on display for a long term loan from the Vancouver Art Gallery, I believe the time frame of the loan is 35 years. It is well worth seeing, as the subject is very interesting.
