Jean-baptiste Arnaud-durbec, Tobias, The Angel, And The Fish (circa 1850)

JEAN-BAPTISTE ARNAUD-DURBEC (1827 Marseille – 1910 Paris)
Tobias, the angel, and the fish
Circa 1850
Oil on a panel from a box of colors
37.5 × 27 cm
Monogrammed lower left: AD
Signed and numbered on the reverse: Arnaud-Durbec 219

This painting is listed in the manuscript catalogue of the works of Arnaud-Durbec, edited by his nephew Albert Arnaud, as "219 - Allegorical subject, Winged woman and man gutting a fish, painted on the face of a study panel of a portable box of colours (37 x 27). It is very interesting to hear that the panel is actually part of a box of colours, but the artist's nephew was not a great iconographer. In fact, the subject is Tobias, the angel and the fish, and the composition is liberally inspired by a biblical illustration by Achille Devéria from around 1828 and for whom the original drawing is kept at the Morgan Library New York.