1993.231: Hat, Shoes and Undergarments (Study for "Une baignade, Asnières)

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1993.231

People

Georges Pierre Seurat, French (Paris 1859 - 1891 Paris)

Title

Hat, Shoes and Undergarments (Study for "Une baignade, Asnières)

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1883-1884

Culture

French

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/312067

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Conté crayon on beige modern laid paper

Dimensions

23.6 x 30.9 cm (9 5/16 x 12 3/16 in.)
frame: 38.7 × 48.9 cm (15 1/4 × 19 1/4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• watermark: MICHAELLET

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Emile Seurat. Félix Fénéon. [Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, by 1940]. [Cesar de Hauke of Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, NY]. [Buchholz Gallery, Curt Valentin, New York, NY, by 1948]. [2] Lois Orswell, Pomfret Center, CT, circa 1948, [3] gift; to Harvard University Art Museum, 1993.

Notes:
[1] The drawing was confiscated in France by the ERR during the German occupation and was likely returned to Seligmann at the end of the war. See ERR inventory no. Sel. 114 [https://errproject.org/jeudepaume/card_view.php?CardId=12591]. The drawing was in the possession of the German embassy in Paris by summer 1940 and returned to France on October 17, 1945. It was included in the exhibition Les Chefs d'oeuvre des collections privées françaises retrouvés en Allemagne par la Commission de récupération artistique et les services alliés from June – August 1946 as no. 155. The drawing is listed in the 1942-1943 stock catalogs of Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York (see Archives of American Art Jacques Seligmann & Co. records Stock Catalogs, New York Office, Box 282, Folder 6). The drawing is part of a list of drawings in a draft of Seligmann’s book The Drawings of Georges Seurat (1947) (see AAA Jacques Seligman & co. records Box 446, Folder 9). The drawing has a “GS” next to it in the manuscript while the published version lists “private collection.”

[2] In “George Seurat” (Editions Albin Michel, Paris, 1948), John Rewald lists the drawing as belonging to the Curt Valentin Collection, New York. A label, formerly on the back of the drawing’s frame from the Buchholz Gallery seems to confirm this provenance.

[3] Lois Orswell placed the drawing on deposit at the Fogg Art Museum from 1953 to 1955 (see Orswell catalogue pp. 372, 374). Orswell placed the work on long-term loan to the museum from 1969 to 1993.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Lois Orswell

Accession Year

1993

Object Number

1993.231

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Publication History

• John Rewald, Georges Seurat, Wittenborn & Co. (New York, NY, 1943), fig. 12
• John Rewald, Georges Seurat, Wittenborn & Co. (New York, NY, 1946), fig. 12
• Les chefs-d'oeuvre des collections privées françaises retrouvés en Allemagne par la Commission de récupération et les Services alliés, exh. cat., Orangerie (Paris, France, 1946), p. 61, cat no. 155
• Germain Seligman, The Drawings of Georges Seurat, Curt Valentin (New York, NY, 1947), no. 4, pl. IV
• John Rewald, Georges Seurat, Albin Michel (Paris, France, 1948), fig. 23
• John Rewald, "Modern Fakes of Modern Pictures", Art News (March 1953), vol. 52, no. 1, repr. p. 21
• César M. de Hauke, Seurat et son Oeuvre, Grund (Paris, France, 1961), p. 170, cat. no. 593
• Robert L. Herbert, Georges Seurat, 1859-1891, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1991), p. 289 +291
• Nicholas Wadley, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawing, Dutton Studio Books, New York (New York, NY, 1991), p. 72, fig. 81
• Michael F. Zimmermann, Seurat and the Art Theory of his Time, Fonds Mercator (Antwerp, 1991), p. 160, fig. 300, repr.
• John Leighton and Richard Thomson, Seurat and the Bathers, National Gallery Publications/Yale University Press (London, 1997), p. 64, repr.
• James Cuno, ed., A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions by the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, Mass., Spring 2000), p. 66, repr.
• Marjorie B. Cohn and Sarah Kianovsky, Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2002), cat. no. 204, fig. 166, pp. 58, 177, 371, 374, 381
• Robert L. Herbert, Seurat and the Making of "La Grande Jatte", exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago/University of California Press (Chicago, 2004), cat. no. 22, repr. (color), pp. 47, 273

Exhibition History

• Les chefs-d'oeuvres des collections privées françaises rétrouvés en Allemagne, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 06/01/1946 - 08/31/1946
• [Benefit exhibition for the Boston Arts Festival], Margaret Brown Gallery, Boston, 05/08/1956 - 05/29/1956
• A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions of Prints and Drawings from 1480 to 1940, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 03/25/2000 - 07/02/2000
• Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/21/2002 - 02/16/2003
• Seurat and the Making of "La Grande Jatte", The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 06/16/2004 - 09/19/2004
• Flowers of Evil: Symbolist Drawings, 1870–1910, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/21/2016 - 08/14/2016

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