Woman with a Fan

c. 1879

The actress Jeanne Samary may have posed for this painting in her cheerfully decorated dressing room at the Comédie-Française, a theater in Paris. Yet the image, as indicated by its title, was not intended as a portrait. The informal subject freed Renoir to experiment with composition—the figure occupies a compressed space, a vibrant bouquet competing with her features. She holds an uchiwa fan, reflecting a fascination with all things Japanese in late nineteenth-century France.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	25 3/4 x 21 1/4 in. (65.4 x 54 cm) Frame: 33 3/8 x 29 1/16 x 2 1/8 in. (84.8 x 73.8 x 5.4 cm)
Object Number	1955.595
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Woman with a Fan, c. 1879, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.595

Select Bibliography

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. François Daulte.. Auguste Renoir, Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint.. Paris: Durand-Ruel.. 1971.. Paris: Galerie Durand-Ruel.. P. A. Renoir.. April 1-25 1883.. Paris: Galerie Bernheim-Jeune.. Cinquante Renoir.. Feb. 28-March 25, 1927.. Paris: Palais National des Arts.. Chefs d'oeuvres de l'art français.. 1937.. New York: Durand-Ruel.. The Four Great Impressionists: Cézanne, Degas, Renoir, Manet, March 27-April 13, 1940. Cat. by Alfred Frankfurter. 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. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor.. The Crisis of Impressionism, 1878-1882. Nov. 2, 1979-Jan. 6, 1980. Cat. by Joel Isaacson. Miami (FL): Center for the Fine Arts.. In Quest of Excellence: Civic Pride, Patronage, Connoisseurship. Jan. 12-April 22, 1984. Nagoya (Japan): Nagoya City Art Museum.. Renoir Retrospective. Nagoya City Art Museum, Oct. 15-Dec. 11, 1988; Hiroshima Museum of Art, Dec. 17, 1988-Feb. 12, 1989; Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, Feb. 18-April 9, 1989. Daimaru Museum of Art. Paris à la Belle Epoque. Exhibitionc catalogue. Tokyo: Art Life, 1992. Art Exhibitions Australia.. Renoir: Master Impressionist. Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, July 30-Sept. 11, 1994; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Sept. 19-Oct. 30, 1994; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Nov, 6, 1994-Jan. 15, 1995. Cat. by John House. 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 Washington: The Phillips Collection.. Impressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party." Sept. 21, 1996-Feb. 9, 1997. Cat. by Eliza E. Rathbone et al. Geffroy, Gustave. "Auguste Renoir". La vie artistique, 3rd series. (1894).. Georges Lecomte.. "L'Oeuvre de Renoir.". L'art et les artistes, 5.. (April-Sept. 1907).. Geffroy, Gustave. "Renoir, peintre de la femme". L'art et l'artiste, n.s. 1. Jan. 1920.. Julius Meier-Graefe.. Renoir.. Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Biermann.. 1929.. Michel Florisoone.. Renoir.. Paris.. 1937.. Lionello Venturi.. Les archives de l'impressionnisme.. Paris, New York: Durand-Ruel.. 1939.. Charles Terrasse.. Cinquante portraits de Renoir.. Paris: Librairie Floury.. 1941.. Michel Florisoone, tr. George Frederic Lees.. Renoir.. London: Commodore Press.. 1942.. R. H. Wilenski.. Modern French Painters, 4th ed.. London: Faber & Faber.. 1963.. Aymar, Gordon C. The Art of Portrait Painting. Philadelphia: Chilton Books,1967. Ashbery, John. "Williamstown-sur-Seine." Art News 65, no. 10 (February 1967): 4447, 62. 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.. Pierre Courthion.. Impressionism.. New York: Abrams.. 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. Tasuo Yoshikado, ed.. The Masterpieces by Great Masters of Modern Art, vol. 2, Renoir.. Tokyo: Gakken Co.. 1976.. Martha Carey.. Pierre-Auguste Renoir: The Luncheon of the Boating Party.. Washington: Phillips Collection.. 1981.. 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. Nicholas Wadley, ed.. Renoir: A Retrospective.. New York: Hugh Lauter Levin/Macmillan.. 1987.. Colin B. Bailey, Joseph J. Rishel, and Mark Rosenthal.. Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection (exh.cat.).. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art.. 1989.. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Distel, Anne. Renoir: "Il faut embellir". Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux & Découvertes Gallimard. 1993. Kostenevich, Albert. Hidden Treasures Revealed: Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Moscow: Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation; St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum; New York: in association with H. N. Abrams, 1995. Kern, Steven, et al. The Clark: Selections from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 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. Philip Wilkinson.. The Art Gallery: Faces.. London: Macmillan Publishers.. 1997.. Tamar Garb.. Bodies of Modernity: Figure and Flesh in Fin-de-Siècle France.. London: Thames and Hudson.. 1998.. Melikian, Souren. "A Unique and Unforgettable Collection." International Herald Tribune, 16–17 September 2000. Susan Miranda Barrow.. Contribution of Japonisme to the Aesthetic of the French Naturalist Novel: A Study of Selected Works of the Goncourts, Zola and Huysmans.. Ph.D. diss., City University of New York; University Microfilms.. 2000.. Belinda Thomson. Impressionism: Origins, Practice, Reception (World of Art). London: Thames and Hudson. 2000. 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

Marie-Joseph Paul Lagarde, Paris (d. 1903, his sale, Drouot, Paris, 25–27 Mar. 1903, no. 19, ill., sold to Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, Mar.–Apr. 1903, sold to Rosenberg, 10 Apr. 1903];¹ [Paul Rosenberg, Paris, from 1903]; Louis-Alexandre Berthier, prince de Wagram, Paris (in 1913);² H. J. Laroche, Paris (by 1914);³ Jacques Laroche, Paris (by 1937–1938, sold to Durand-Ruel, 20 Dec. 1938); [Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York, sold to Clark the same day, 20 Dec. 1938]; Robert Sterling Clark (1938–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. 1. This information is given on the back of a photograph of the painting originally from Durand-Ruel and now in the Clark’s curatorial files. On a label printed with the gallery’s name and address is typed “Stock Paris No. 7330—Photo 4730 / Acheté par Durand-Ruel Paris à Vente / Lagarde le 27 Mars 1903—Vendu à / M. Rosenberg le 10 Avril 1903.” 2. The dates of Berthier’s ownership of the painting are uncertain; a label on the stretcher, however, includes the line “Collection du Pce de Wagram 1913.” It is thus likely that he owned it at some point during that year. 3. In Grosvenor House, Art français: Exposition d'art decoratif contemporarin, 1800–1885 (exh. cat., 1914), Société des Amis du Luxembourg, 1re exposition des collectionneurs (exh. cat., 1924), and Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, Cinquante Renoir (exh. cat.,1927), the painting is listed in the Laroche collection, with no forename noted. The painting was lent to the 1937 exhibition by Jacques Laroche. François Daulte, Auguste Renoir, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, 1971, no. 360, lists the work first with H. J. Laroche, and then with Jacques Laroche, but does not supply dates, give further identification, or mention the relationship between the two.