Pierre-Auguste Renoir
French, 1841–1919
Portrait of a Young Woman (L'Ingenue)
c. 1874
A fashionably dressed woman stands before an undefined background of blue and green tones that suggests the outdoors. Her gestures and expression are as open to interpretation as the setting. Although her sideways glance seems to hint at something happening beyond the frame, Renoir may have simply intended to highlight the woman’s youthful features and fresh complexion.
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 21 15/16 x 18 1/4 in. (55.7 x 46.4 cm) Frame: 31 5/8 × 28 1/8 × 4 1/4 in. (80.3 × 71.4 × 10.8 cm) |
Object Number | 1955.606 |
Acquisition | Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955 |
Status | On View |
Image Caption
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Portrait of a Young Woman (L'Ingenue), c. 1874, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.606
Select Bibliography
Galerie Manzi-Joyant. Exposition d'Art Modern. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Galerie Manzi-Joyant, 1912.
EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY
Provenance
Eugène Murer, Paris (by 1887, d. 1906); Georges Viau, Paris (until 1907, his sale, Durand-Ruel, Paris, 4 March 1907, no. 61, ill., sold to Bernheim-Jeune); [Bernheim-Jeune, Paris]; Jacob Goldschmidt, Berlin; Alphonse Kann, Paris (by 1911–until at least 1926); [Paul Rosenberg, Paris];¹ J. Horace Harding, New York (d. 1929); Charles B. Harding, New York, his son, by descent (1929–until at least 1937); [Carroll Carstairs, New York, sold to Clark, 28 Nov. 1940]; Robert Sterling Clark (1940–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. 1. The dates of ownership by Paul Rosenberg are uncertain. François Daulte, Auguste Renoir, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, 1971 (vol. 1, no. 225) lists Rosenberg before Goldschmidt, but records in the Rosenberg Archives suggest that the painting was purchased after 1917, thus presumably sometime between 1926 and 1929, after Kann’s ownership. An inventory card in the Archives also indicates that this painting was in the “collection Abdy,” though no further evidence of ownership by a member of the Abdy family has been found. See The Paul Rosenberg Archives, a gift of Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York.