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Pierre-Auguste Renoir
French, 1841–1919
Sleeping Girl
1880
A young woman dozes in a chair, her striped stockings and plain skirt suggesting her humble background. The undergarment slipping off her shoulder attracts our gaze, while giving the impression that she is unaware of being observed. The model is thought to have been a resident of Montmartre known for her colorful slang and erratic lifestyle. The image’s suggestive nature is underscored by the presence of the equally sleepy cat resting in her lap.
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 47 3/8 x 36 1/4 in. (120.3 x 92 cm) Frame: 60 13/16 x 49 1/8 in. (154.5 x 124.8 cm) |
| Object Number | 1955.598 |
| Acquisition | Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955 |
| Status | On View |
Image Caption
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Sleeping Girl, 1880, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.598
Select Bibliography
Néret, Gilles. Renoir: Painter of Happiness 18411919. Cologne: Taschen GmbH, 2001.
Conforti, Michael, et al. The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven: distributed by Yale University Press, 2006.
François Daulte.. Auguste Renoir, Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint.. Paris: Durand-Ruel.. 1971..
Societe des Artistes Françaises. Le Salon de 1880: Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1880.
Paris.. Septième Exposition des artistes indépendants.. March 1-31, 1882.. Paris: Galerie Durand-Ruel.. Renoir.. May 1892.. Paris; Galeries Durand-Ruel.. Exposition de Tableaux de Monet, Pissarro, Renoir et Sisley.. April 1899.. Durand-Ruel. A Selection from the Pictures by Boudin, Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, and Sisley. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Durand-Ruel, 1905. Munich: Galerie Thannhauser.. Auguste Renoir: 41 Werke aus den Jahren 1873-1910.. 1913.. Paris: Galerie Durand-Ruel.. Exposition Renoir.. Nov. 29-Dec. 18, 1920.. Paris: Galerie Durand-Ruel. Oeuvres importantes de Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley.. Jan. 5-24, 1925.. New York: Durand-Ruel Galleries.. Exhibition of Masterpieces by Renoir.. March 12-30, 1935.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.. Exhibit Six: Impressionist Paintings.. Opened Sept. 18, 1956.. Wildenstein & Company. An Exhibition of Treasures from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Paintings, drawings & rare silver, for the benefit of the Committee to Rescue Italian Art, inc. (CRIA). Exhibition catalogue. New York: Wildenstein & Company, 1967. London: Hayward Gallery (Arts Council of Great Britain).. Renoir. Jan. 30-April 21, 1985; Grand Palais, Paris, May 14-Sept. 2, 1985; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Oct. 9, 1985-Jan. 5, 1986. Catalogue by John House. Washington (DC): National Gallery of Art. The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886. Jan. 16-April 6, 1986;. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, April 19-July 6, 1986.. Cat. by Charles S. Moffett. 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 M. Berr de Turique.. Renoir.. Paris.. n.d.. Royal Cortissoz.. Seven Paintings by Renoir.. Paris, New York: Durand-Ruel.. [19--?].. Vollard.. Gl'Impressionisti Francesci.. Bergame.. 1908.. Julius Meier-Graefe.. Auguste Renoir.. Munich: R. Piper.. 1911.. Georges Rivière.. Renoir et ses amis.. Paris: Floury.. 1921.. Julius Meier-Graefe.. Renoir.. Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Biermann.. 1929.. Vollard, Ambroise. Renoir, An Intimate Record. New York: A. A. Knopf. 1925; 1934. Barnes, Albert C. and Violette de Mazia. The Art of Renoir. New York. 1935. Claude Roger-Marx.. Renoir.. Paris: Floury.. 1937.. Charles Terrasse.. Cinquante portraits de Renoir.. Paris: Librairie Floury.. 1941.. Michel Drucker.. Renoir.. Paris: Ed. Pierre Tisné.. 1944.. John Rewald.. The History of Impressionism.. New York: Museum of Modern Art.. 1961, 1973.. William Gaunt.. The Life and Art of Renoir.. London: Phaidon Press.. 1952.. Oscar Reutersward.. Impressionisterna, Infor Publik Och Kritik.. Stockholm: Albert Bonnier Forlag.. 1952.. Michel Drucker.. Renoir.. Paris: Tisné.. 1955.. C., R. F. "Williamstown: Nuove opere alla Galleria Clark." Emporium 129, no. 770 (February 1959): 76-81. Spaeth, Eloise. American Art Museums and Galleries: An Introduction to Looking. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960. François Daulte.. "Le marchand des impressionnistes.". L'Oeil.. June 1960.. Anonymous. Illustration. The Springfield Republican, 26 June 1960. . "The Clark, Williamstown". vol. 4, no. 27, June 27, 1960. Playbill. Daulte, François. "Des Renoir et des chevaux." Connaissance des Arts 103 (September 1960): 26–38. John Rewald.. The History of Impressionism.. New York: Museum of Modern Art.. 1961, 1973.. Jean Renoir.. Renoir, My Father. Condensed. 26:23.. Look.. (Nov. 6, 1962).:pp. 57-68.. Jean Renoir.. Renoir, My Father.. London: Collins.. 1962.. R. H. Wilenski.. Modern French Painters.. New York.. 1940.. Barbara Ehrlich White.. An Analysis of Renoir's Development from 1877-1887. Columbia Ph.D. diss. 1965.. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms.. 1972.. Blunden, Maria, and Godfrey Blunden. Impressionists and Impressionism. English edition translated by James Emmons. Geneva: Skira, 1970. 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. Pierre Cabanne.. Renoir.. Paris: Réalités-Hachette.. 1970.. Elda Fezzi.. L'opera complete di Renoir, nel periodo impressionista 1869-1883.. Milan: Rizzoli.. 1972.. François Daulte.. Gli Impressionisti: Auguste Renoir.. Milan: Fratelli Fabri.. 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. Martha Carey.. Pierre-Auguste Renoir: The Luncheon of the Boating Party.. Washington: Phillips Collection.. 1981.. Brooks, John H. Highlights: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1981. White, Barbara Ehrlich. Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters. New York: Abrams, 1984. 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. Denys Sutton.. "Impressionism and Revisionism.". 123:292.. Apollo.. (June 1986).. Bernard Denvir, ed.. The Impressionists.. London: Thames & Hudson.. 1987.. Nicholas Wadley.. Renoir.. London: John Calmann & King.. 1987.. Raffaele de Grada.. Renoir.. Milan: Mondadori.. 1989.. Raffaele de Grada.. Renoir.. Milan: Fenice 2000, also Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch ed.. 1989. Sophie Monneret.. Renoir.. Paris: Editions Chêne.. 1989.. John Updike.. Just Looking: Essays on Art.. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.. 1989.. Gildas Bourdais.. Les modernes et les autres: cent ans d'art moderne dans le monde.. Lausanne: Libre Total.. 1990.. Nicholas J. Saunders.. The Cult of the Cat. Art and Imagination Series.. London: Thames and Hudson.. 1991.. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Ruth Berson.. The New Painting, Impressionism 1874-1886. Documentation, 2 vols.. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.. 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.. Ivinski, Patricia R. "Robert Sterling Clark as a Collector of Renoir." The Magazine Antiques 62, no. 4 (October 1997): 532–35. Tamar Garb.. Bodies of Modernity: Figure and Flesh in Fin-de-Siècle France.. London: Thames and Hudson.. 1998.. John Updike.. Just Looking: Essays on Art (paperback edition).. Boston: MFA Publications.. 2001.. Rogers, Katharine M. Cats from Bast to Garfield: The Cat and the Human Imagination. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 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. James H. Rubin. Impressionist Cats and Dogs: Pets in the Paintings of Modern Life. London: Yale University Press. 2003:p. 113 fig. 85. House, John, and Martha Lucy. Renoir in the Barnes Foundation. New Haven: Yale University Press; Philadelphia: The Barnes Foundation, 2012. Kostenevich, Albert, ed. Impressionism: Sensation and Inspiration. Highlights from the Hermitage. Exhibition catalogue. Amsterdam: The State Hermitage Museum, 2012. 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. Blunden, Maria, and Godfrey Blunden. Der Impressionismus in Wort und Bild. German edition. Geneva: Skira, 1970. Blunden, Maria, and Godfrey Blunden. Journal de l'impressionnisme. French edition. Geneva: Skira, 1971. 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. Société des Artistes Françaises. Catalogue illustré du Salon. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Motteroz and L. Baschet, 1880.EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY
Provenance
The artist, sold to Durand-Ruel, 6 Jan. 1881; [Durand-Ruel, Paris, sold to De Kuyper, 29 May 1883]; [De Kuyper, Rotterdam, 1883–90, deposited with Durand-Ruel, 3 Nov. 1890, sold to Durand-Ruel, 23 May 1891];¹ [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1891–1926, sold to Clark, 3 May 1926, as Femme au chat]; Robert Sterling Clark (1926–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. 1. Information from Durand-Ruel archives. De Kuyper presumably refers to Johannes R. C. H. de Kuijper (1831–1910), associated with the distillery Johannes de Kuyper in Rotterdam. De Kuijper and his brother Piet founded the Rotterdamsche Kunstclub, an artists’ association and art dealership, in 1883. See Chris Stolwijk, Uit de schilderswereld: Nederlandse kunstschilders in de tweede helft van de negentiende eeuw, 1998, pp. 344–45.
