Woman Crocheting

c. 1875

A young woman sits in a middle-class interior, absorbed in an everyday task. Her informal pose and comfortable clothing suggest that this is an image of contemporary domestic life rather than a portrait. Sunlight shines on the model’s hair and softens the contours of her body, highlighting her bare shoulder and forearm. This is the very first of more than thirty paintings by Renoir that Sterling Clark acquired for his collection.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	28 15/16 x 23 3/4 in. (73.5 x 60.3 cm) Frame: 39 7/8 x 34 5/8 x 3 1/2 in. (101.3 x 87.9 x 8.9 cm)
Object Number	1955.603
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Woman Crocheting, c. 1875, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.603

Select Bibliography

Sirna, Gail Carolyn. In Praise of the Needlewoman: Embroiderers, Knitters, Lacemakers, and Weavers in Art. London; New York: Merrell. 2006. 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. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.. Exhibit Six: Impressionist Paintings.. Opened Sept. 18, 1956.. 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 Soichi Tominaga.. Renoir. L'Art moderne du monde, vol. 4.. Tokyo: Shueisha.. 1969.. Soichi Tominaga.. L'Art moderne du Monde, vol. 4, Renoir.. Tokyo: Zauho Press.. 1969.. 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. . Renoir. Great Masters of Modern Art. 9. Tokyo: Kodansha. 1979. 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. Sophie Monneret.. Renoir.. Paris: Editions Chêne.. 1989.. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. François Daulte.. Auguste Renoir, Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint.. Paris: Durand-Ruel.. 1971.. House, John, and Martha Lucy. Renoir in the Barnes Foundation. New Haven: Yale University Press; Philadelphia: The Barnes Foundation, 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. 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.

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EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY

Provenance

[Durand-Ruel, Paris, before 1881, transferred to Durand-Ruel, New York, 4 May 1888];¹ [Durand-Ruel, New York, sold to Lambert, 1888]; Catholina Lambert, Paterson (1888-1916, his sale, American Art Association, New York, 22 Feb. 1916, no. 152, ill., as Girl Knitting, sold to Scott & Fowles); [Scott & Fowles, New York, sold to Clark, 16 Dec. 1916, as Girl Knitting]; Robert Sterling Clark (1916–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. 1. According to the Durand-Ruel Archives, this painting was listed as La tricoteuse in the gallery’s stock in July 1881, but it must have been purchased earlier. It is possible that it was also the painting listed in the gallery’s stock in 1876 as Jeune fille tricotant, but this cannot be confirmed.