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Head and shoulder portrait of a young woman with dark hair wearing a blousy muted red top.

The light brown-skinned woman is seated in a vaguely defined wheat-colored chair in three-quarter view, facing almost right, with her gaze looking beyond the viewer, right of center. Her dark hair is up on her head, she has a placid look on her face, pink cheeks and dark eyebrows. There’s a faint sheen on her face as if light is coming from upper left. The background is undefined with strokes of warm colors.　

Gallery Text

Renoir painted Gabrielle Renard (1879–1959) more than two hundred times. In several of the portraits, she wears the same informal, square-necked gown seen here. By 1908, she had been employed in Renoir’s household for fourteen years, as a nanny, housekeeper, model, and companion to the aging artist.

This painting’s gold and brownish-red palette, loose brushwork, and stylized, heavy forms typify Renoir’s late work; he adopted the style in response to the ancient murals of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which he had seen in Naples. His direct engagement with the classical past was greatly admired, and was seen as a modern project by many young avant-garde artists, including Picasso and Matisse. The latter visited Renoir frequently in his final years, and praised him in the highest terms: “I have always felt that recorded time holds no nobler story, no more heroic, no more magnificent achievement than that of Renoir.”

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1951.60
People
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French (Limoges 1841 - 1919 Cagnes)
Title
Gabrielle in a Red Dress
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Gabrielle Renard
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1908
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/229048

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1220, European Art, 19th–20th century, Collection of Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
55 x 46.5 cm (21 5/8 x 18 5/16 in.)
framed: 76.3 x 66 x 8 cm (30 1/16 x 26 x 3 1/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: Renoir
  • stamp: Center of stretcher, stenciled in black ink: 10
  • stamp: Center of stretcher, in black or brown ink: DOUANE / PARIS / CENTRALE
  • inscription: On stretcher, handwritten in blue crayon or chalk: 37371
  • inscription: On stretcher, handwritten in black crayon: R(?) / 17
  • inscription: On stretcher, in blue crayon: Ph.A1788

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, (1908-1919?) by descent; to his son Jean Renoir (1919). [Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin, Germany] (1927). A. Conger Goodyear, New York, (by 1931). [Paul Rosenberg, New York, NY] sold; to Maurice Wertheim, (1943-1951) bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1951.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest from the Collection of Maurice Wertheim, Class of 1906
Accession Year
1951
Object Number
1951.60
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK HAS SIGNIFICANT LOAN RESTRICTIONS BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • [Reproduction only], Art News, (October 29, 1927)., repr.
  • Renoir : Gemälde aus dem Besitze seiner Söhne und seine Skulpturen, exh. cat., Galerie Alfred Flechtheim (Berlin, Germany, 1927), repr., no. 10
  • [Unidentified article], Cahiers d'Art (1928), no. 2, repr., p. 51
  • [Unidentified article], Omnibus (1931), repr., p. 82
  • Manet and Renoir, exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA, 1933), p. 18
  • Marc Elder, L'Atelier de Renoir, Bernheim-Jeune (Paris, France, 1935), v. II, no. 367, repr. as pl. 117
  • Centennial Loan Exhibition, 1841-1941, Renoir, for the benefit of the Free French Relief Committee, exh. cat., W. Bradford Press (New York, NY, 1941), repr. pl. 77
  • Delacroix and Renoir, exh. cat., Paul Rosenberg and Co. (New York, NY, 1948), pp. 76-77, repr. pl. 26
  • La Peinture Française Depuis 1870: Collection Maurice Wertheim, exh. cat., Tom Taylor (Québec, Canada, 1949), p. 63, repr. p. 64
  • Walter Pach, ed., Pierre Auguste Renoir, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1950), repr. p. 102
  • John Coolidge, "The Wertheim Collection", Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, July 7, 1951)
  • [Unidentified article], The Christian Science Monitor (August 6, 1951), repr.
  • "19th and 20th Century Art", Think (September 1952), pp. 18-19, 32. repr.
  • Howard Devree, "By French Masters: The Metropolitan Shows Wertheim Collection", The New York Times (New York, NY, July 6 1952), p. 6, p. 6
  • The Maurice Wertheim Catalogue: Modern French Art-- Monet to Picasso, exh. cat., North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh, NC, 1960), p. 44; repr. p. 45
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Manet to Picasso, exh. cat., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX, 1962), p. 44
  • Elda Fezzi, L'Opera Completa di Renoir nel periodo impressionista, 1869-1883, Rizzoli Editore (Milan, Italy, 1972), p. 99, pl. 225, repr. in b/w
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, exh. cat., Maine State Museum (Augusta, ME, 1972), repr., no. 31
  • Vivien Raynor, "Art: Impressionist Show at the I.B.M. Gallery" [review], The New York Times (New York, NY, April 26, 1985), p. C24
  • John O'Brian, Degas to Matisse: the Maurice Wertheim Collection, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and Fogg Art Museum (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, 1988), no. 10, pp. 64, 152; repr. in color p. 65
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 127; repr. as no. 409
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection and Selected Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings and Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1990), repr. in color no. 18, p. 67
  • Elizabeth M. Rudy, "Researching the Wertheim Collection at the Harvard Art Museums", Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals (Summer 2014), Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 301-6
  • Sylvie Patry, Renoir: Father and Son / Painting and Cinema, exh. cat., Barnes Foundation, Musée d'Orsay, and Flammarion (Philadelphia, 2018), pp. 228, 230, repr. p. 230 as fig. 156

Exhibition History

  • Renoir: Gemalde aus dem Besitze seiner Söhne und seine Skulpturen, Galerie Flechtheim, Berlin, 11/20/1927 - 12/22/1927
  • Manet and Renoir, Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 12/01/1933 - 12/31/1933
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, 1937, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 01/01/1937 - 12/31/1937
  • Centennial Loan Exhibition, 1841-1941, Renoir, for the benefit of the Free Frenc, Duveen Galleries, New York, 11/08/1941 - 12/06/1941
  • Delacroix-Renoir, Rosenberg Gallery, New York, 01/01/1948 - 12/31/1948
  • La Peinture Française depuis 1870, Musée de la Province de Quebec, 07/12/1949 - 08/07/1949
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 07/01/1952 - 09/14/1952
  • French Paintings Since 1870 from the Maurice Wertheim Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 06/01/1953 - 09/30/1953
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 06/15/1957 - 09/15/1957
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 06/10/1958 - 08/31/1958
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Modern French Art--Monet to Picasso, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 06/17/1960 - 09/04/1960
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection: Manet to Picasso, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 06/13/1962 - 09/02/1962
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 06/20/1963 - 09/01/1963
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, 06/24/1965 - 09/07/1965
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, 09/03/1968 - 09/22/1968
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, 06/01/1971 - 09/30/1971
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection, Maine State Museum, Augusta, 06/01/1972 - 09/01/1972
  • Manet to Matisse: The Maurice Wertheim Collection, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, 04/09/1985 - 05/25/1985
  • The Maurice Wertheim Collection and Selected Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings and Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum, Isetan Department Store, Tokyo, 03/01/1990 - 04/10/1990; Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, 04/14/1990 - 05/13/1990
  • Re-View: S427 Impressionist & Postimpressionist Art, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/02/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 1220 Wertheim, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/13/2015 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu