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Portrait of Madame Monet (Madame Claude Monet Reading) Slider Image 1
Portrait of Madame Monet (Madame Claude Monet Reading) Slider Image 2

Invoice from Durand-Ruel, New York, to Robert Sterling Clark for the purchase of five paintings. Dated 18 February 1933.

Portrait of Madame Monet (Madame Claude Monet Reading) Slider Image 3

Receipt from Durand-Ruel, New York, to Robert Sterling Clark for the purchase of five paintings. Dated 3 March 1933.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

French, 1841–1919

Portrait of Madame Monet (Madame Claude Monet Reading)

c. 1874

During the early 1870s, Renoir and Monet often painted side by side, producing images of the same subject and sometimes using each other—and other family members—as models. In Renoir’s informal portrait of Camille Monet, the painter’s wife sits on a comfortable sofa reading a paperback book. Small touches of color cover the canvas like stitches in a tapestry. A blue line runs down the middle of Mme Monet’s dress, echoing the angle of the Japanese fans on the wall.

Medium oil on canvas
Dimensions 24 5/16 x 19 13/16 in. (61.7 x 50.3 cm) Frame: 34 x 29 7/8 x 3 1/4 in. (86.4 x 75.9 x 8.3 cm)
Object Number 1955.612
Acquisition Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status On View

Image Caption

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Portrait of Madame Monet (Madame Claude Monet Reading), c. 1874, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.612

Select Bibliography

Søndergaard, Sidsel Maria, ed. Women in Impressionism: From Mythical Feminine to Modern Woman. Exhibition catalogue. Milan and Copenhagen: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek with Skira Editore, 2006. Néret, Gilles. Renoir: Painter of Happiness 18411919. Cologne: Taschen GmbH, 2001. High Museum of Art, Atlanta. A Passion for Renoir: Five Great Paintings from the Clark Art Institute. Jan. 10-Mar. 3, 2002. Paris: Grand Palais.. Salon d'automne.. Oct. 15-Nov. 15, 1904.. Durand-Ruel. A Selection from the Pictures by Boudin, Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, and Sisley. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Durand-Ruel, 1905. Paris: Galeries Durand-Ruel.. Portraits par Renoir.. June 5-20, 1912.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.. Exhibit Six: Impressionist Paintings.. Opened Sept. 18, 1956.. Wildenstein & Co., New York.. Renoir. Mar. 27-May 3, 1969.. 1969.. Feeney, Maura. A La Mode: Women's Fashions in French Art, 1850-1900. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1982. Tübingen. Kunsthalle Tübingen.. Renoir: Paintings 1860-1917. Jan. 20-May 27, 1996. Exh.cat. by Götz Adriani.. Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag.. 1996.. Kern, Steven, et al. A Passion for Renoir: Sterling and Francine Clark Collect, 19161951. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1996 Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age. June 27-Sept. 14, 1997; Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 17, 1997-Jan. 4, 1998; Kimbell Art Museum, Feb. 8-April 26, 1998. (Exh. cat. by Colin Bailey et al.). National Gallery of Canada and Yale University Press, London.. Washington (DC): National Gallery of Art.. The Impressionists at Argenteuil. May 28-Aug. 20, 2000; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Sept. 6-Dec. 3, 2000. (Cat. by Paul Tucker.) Julius Meier-Graefe.. Renoir.. Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Biermann.. 1929.. Hans Graber.. Auguste Renoir: nach eigenen und fremden Zeugnissen.. Basel: B. Schwabe.. 1943.. de Kooning, Elaine. "Renoir: as if by Magic." Art News 55 (Oct. 1956) :pp. 43-45, 66-67. François Fosca.. Renoir: L'homme et son oeuvre.. Paris: Ed. Aimery Somogy.. 1961.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Elda Fezzi.. L'opera complete di Renoir, nel periodo impressionista 1869-1883.. Milan: Rizzoli.. 1972.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Keith Wheldon.. Renoir and His Art.. London: Hamlyn Group.. 1975.. Tasuo Yoshikado, ed.. The Masterpieces by Great Masters of Modern Art, vol. 2, Renoir.. Tokyo: Gakken Co.. 1976.. Callen, Anthea. Renoir. London: Oresko Books. 1978. Kimio Nakayama.. Renoir, Rising Sun Series: Art of the World, vol. 6.. Tokyo: Zauho Press.. 1978.. . Renoir. Great Masters of Modern Art. 9. Tokyo: Kodansha. 1979. Mukherjee, Sushil. "Treasure of the Clark Museum." Berkshire Magazine (Winter 1982). Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Elda Fezzi.. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Renoir, période impressionniste 1869-1883.. Paris: Flammarion.. 1985.. Norio Shimada.. Renoir.. Tokyo.. 1985.. Sophie Monneret.. Renoir.. Paris: Editions Chêne.. 1989.. Daimaru Museum of Art. Paris à la Belle Epoque. Exhibitionc catalogue. Tokyo: Art Life, 1992. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Katsumi Mirazaki.. "Renoir: His Life and Works" (in Japanese).. Geijutsu Shincho.. Aug. 1993.. Charles S. Moffett.. Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation.. New York.. 1993.. White, Barbara Ehrlich. Impressionists Side by Side: Their Friendships, Rivalries and Artistic Exchanges. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Marianne Alphant.. Claude Monet: Une vie dans le paysage.. Paris: Fernand Hazan.. 1993.. Ivinski, Patricia R. "Robert Sterling Clark as a Collector of Renoir." The Magazine Antiques 62, no. 4 (October 1997): 532–35. Robert L. Herbert.. "Renoir the Radical: 'Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age.'". 44:18.. New York Review of Books.. November 20, 1997.:pp. 8-10.. Takao Okamura.. Shukan Bijutsukan.. Tokyo: Shogakukan.. January 30, 2001.. Bridgestone Museum of Art. Renoir: From Outsider to Old Master 1870-1892. Exhibition catalogue. Nagoya: The Chunichi Shimbun, 2001. François Daulte.. Auguste Renoir, Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint.. Paris: Durand-Ruel.. 1971.. Hansen, Dorothee and Wulf Herzogenrath. Monet und Camille: Frauenportraits im Impressionismus. Kunsthalle Bremen, October 15, 2005- February 26, 2006. Munich: Hirmer Verlag GmbH. 2005. Brettell, Richard et al. L'impressionnisme, de France et d'Amérique: Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Degas. Musée Fabre de Montpellier, June 2- September 30, 2007; Musée de Grenoble, October 20, 2007- January 20, 2008. Versailles: Artlys; Montpellier: Musée Fabre; Grenoble: Musée de Grenoble. 2007. Gedo, Mary Mathews. Monet and His Muse: Camille Monet in the Artist's Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Kramer, Hilton. "Art: Clark Institute Marks Silver Jubliee." New York Times, June11, 1980. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011. McBride, Henry. "The Renoirs in America: In Appreciation of the Metropolitan Museum's Exhibition." The Art News 35, no. 30 (24 April 1937): 59–76.

EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY

Provenance

The artist, sold to Durand-Ruel, before 1891¹; [Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York, before 1891–1933, sold to Clark, 2 Feb. 1933]; Robert Sterling Clark (1933–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. 1. The painting was re-entered as part of Durand-Ruel’s stock on 25 Aug. 1891, indicating that it had been purchased earlier.

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