Cat. 3 Woman at the Piano, 1875/76

With its elevated vantage point giving an unobstructed view of the woman’s hands on the keyboard, Woman at the Piano invites the viewer to associate the sensual act of listening with the visual harmony of the beautiful redhead wearing a luxurious, brilliantly lit peignoir.3 The woman—likely Renoir’s favorite model of the late 1870s, Nini Lopez—plays an upright piano appropriate for modest living quarters. The interior furnishings depicted in this painting are not opulent but are typical of a bourgeois home of the 1870s: an oriental carpet, subdued wall coverings in dark colors, and a fringed portiere to divide rooms. In the background on the left, a large, glazed ceramic planter with a footed base, remarkable for its iridescence, may be of chinoiserie design. Above the piano hangs a pastel or print framed in a mat, another sign of middle-class living. The bound volumes of music on top of the piano, piled together with loose, illustrated sheets that often accompanied popular tunes, hint at the pianist’s broad repertoire. As the writer Émile Zola related in his novel Nana of 1879, learning to play the piano was a common element of a middle-class French girl’s education, along with English lessons.4 The comfortable ambience of the room in Woman at the Piano places it outside Renoir’s rue Saint-Georges studio, which was described as a rectangular room furnished with old armchairs, where three walls were covered in gray wallpaper and a third was entirely glazed for maximum light.5

Sensuality and the Parisienne

Sensuality was often an aspect of Renoir’s paintings of the Parisienne—a woman dressed in the latest fashion—which were intended primarily for the enjoyment of the wealthy male viewer.6 Woman at the Piano can be considered an image of the Parisienne because the peignoir is the star of the painting, occupying most of the picture and making the canvas the equivalent of a fashion plate. The raised viewing angle opens up the foreground to accommodate the full extent of the flowing skirt. The artist made adjustments to the piano, which in overall profile appears more foreshortened in the X-ray, suggesting that he stepped back from the subject in order to encompass the woman’s entire figure in the composition; the artist also lowered his point of view to a slightly less steep angle (fig. 3.1). Demonstrating an expressive and gestural technique, Renoir rendered the peignoir to appear as a willowy mass of brushwork over an off-white or beige underlayer painted over with white, blue, and some light green, all blended together to convey the garment’s voluminous folds (fig. 3.2). The only lines are the dark blue decorative trim. Blended blue shadow becomes more dominant toward the bottom of the peignoir, in keeping with a diminishing light source. Originally painted over a larger area, the peignoir was slimmed and the line of the woman’s lower back was adjusted to include more of the piano seat (see Application/technique and artist’s revisions in the technical report). The flattened perspective and graphic outline of the peignoir that result from Renoir’s elaborate handling recall the gowns of female saints in altarpieces of the Northern Renaissance artist Jan van Eyck.7

Comparable sensuality in an interior setting can be seen in A Girl Crocheting (fig. 3.3 [Daulte 154; Dauberville 390]).8 This painting is a genre scene with little emphasis on the fashion or urbanity present in the image of the Parisienne. The woman shares the long red hair of the figure in Woman at the Piano and might also be Nini Lopez, whom Renoir employed from 1875 to 1880 and who was known for being “punctual, serious, and discreet.”9 By showing her in A Girl Crocheting with a bared shoulder and her hair unbound and flowing down her back, Renoir introduced eroticism into an otherwise traditional genre painting—not unlike the effect he achieved with the peignoir in Woman at the Piano. With its iridescent blue vase and mantel ornaments that include a framed picture, the dark interior of A Girl Crocheting is also comparable to that in Woman at the Piano. In both works comfortable, fashionable surroundings are combined with an alluring image of femininity. Renoir heightened the sensuality of Woman at the Piano with subtle adjustments to the figure. In the X-ray the woman’s face is profil perdu (fig. 3.4). In the final placement of the figure in full profile Renoir showed her youthful features to better advantage. The X-ray also indicates that the woman’s hair was at an earlier stage gathered low at the back of her head, while in the final composition it is swept up to reveal more of her neck.

One can get a good sense of how Renoir transformed the subject of the woman at the piano into an image of the Parisienne by comparing it to a contemporary work by Frédéric Samuel Cordey, Captive Audience of 1877 (fig. 3.5).10 In this painting the instrument is also placed in the corner of a room decorated with wallpaper and framed pictures; however, both the plain design of the pianist’s day dress and the meditative pose of her companion place this scene some distance from the sensual retreat of Renoir’s painting. The dull wall color, uniform ambient lighting, and mundane furnishings of Cordey’s interior are pedestrian and undistinguished compared to the elegance and visual appeal displayed in Woman at the Piano.11

A New Direction for Renoir’s Genre Painting

While the emphasis on fashion and femininity in Woman at the Piano marks it as a representation of the Parisienne, the depiction of a woman playing the piano alone in an interior setting defines it as a genre painting or a view of everyday life. The theme of young women at the piano was one that Renoir would make his own in the 1890s, when the French State acquired Young Girls at the Piano (fig. 3.6 [Dauberville 993]), the first work by the artist to enter the collection of contemporary art housed in the Musée du Luxembourg, the occasion that marks the beginning of the artist’s official recognition.12 Such a significant career milestone makes Woman at the Piano all the more compelling, as it is the artist’s first treatment of a piano-playing subject.13 It was his only example of the theme until 1888, when he painted the portrait commission The Daughters of Catulle Mendès (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York [Daulte 545; Dauberville 966]).14

Renoir seems to have come late to the theme of the woman at the piano compared to his Impressionist colleagues.15 Certainly there was a commercial necessity to expand the range of his successful Parisienne images and genre repertoire. Alternatively it could be argued that his growing social circle of poets and musicians in the mid-1870s may have alerted him to the broader context in which painting, music, and the arts coexisted. What kinds of tunes are shown in the stack of music in Woman at the Piano: popular operettas, classical sonatas, works by German composer Richard Wagner?16 The relative merits of these musical styles would have been as passionate a point of discussion as painting technique and color for many of Renoir’s friends in the 1870s. In his biography of Renoir, Georges Rivière devoted an entire chapter to Ernest Cabaner, a pianist and early supporter of the Impressionists who lived in Montmartre on the rue de Clichy until his death in 1881.17 Renoir’s inner circle also included gifted pianists Edmond Maître and Emmanuel Chabrier. In the larger salons, where dozens of socialites would gather for gossip and conversation, music had a substantial role in the entertainment of guests. Renoir’s caricature of the novelist Alphonse Daudet at the piano wearing an evening jacket (fig. 3.7) suggests a command performance at one of these events.18 The more intimate surroundings in Woman at the Piano evoke the idea of an active listening experience on the part of the viewer. It is a painting addressed to a client drawn to the fashionably dressed Parisienne, yet one who may also have supported progressive music as openly as progressive art.

Woman at the Piano at the Second Impressionist Exhibition

It is fairly certain that Woman at the Piano was the work exhibited at the second Impressionist exhibition in April 1876 as Femme au piano, since it is the only work of that title dating from the 1870s.19 Renoir submitted eighteen works to the exhibition, including Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (The Rowers’ Lunch) (1875; cat. 2). This work received only a brief mention by the critics, and Woman at the Piano was passed over completely. Much of the commentary about Renoir’s work focused on his controversial female torso, titled Étude (fig. 3.8 [Daulte 201; Dauberville 603]).20 Art critics more comfortable with the academic nude in historic or mythological contexts found Renoir’s provocative play of light and shadow on human flesh in a garden setting deeply disturbing. The powerful and influential critic of Le figaro, Albert Wolff, compared the nude to a mass of decomposing flesh.21 Woman at the Piano is equally innovative in its lighting of the figure. The brilliant whites of the flowing peignoir and the woman’s glowing flesh tones visible through the sheer fabric of her sleeve suggest conditions of bright sunlight seemingly at odds with the somber tones of the apartment’s interior. Direct sunlight from a window would presumably cast distinct shadows, but no such shadows are apparent.

One of the few positive comments about Renoir’s work at the 1876 exhibition came from Zola, who had been a supporter of the Impressionists for a decade. Zola’s review was sympathetic: “M. Renoir is above all a figure painter. He favors a blonde palette of colors that lighten and blend with an admirable harmony. One would say these are works by Rubens lit by the strongest sunlight of Velázquez.”22 While Zola did not mention Woman at the Piano, his review nevertheless raises the question of Renoir’s engagement with the Old Masters in 1875–76 and how these sources might have played a role in the inspiration for the painting. The theme of the woman at the piano can be traced to seventeenth-century Dutch artists such as Gabriel Metsu, whose Lady at the Virginals (1662; Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris) was reproduced in Charles Blanc’s Histoire de peintres de toutes les écoles: École hollandaise in 1862. Another Dutch work, Johannes Vermeer’s A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal (fig. 3.9), appeared in an exhibition of Old Master paintings from private collections held in Paris in 1866.23 Vermeer’s work had not been previously seen in a Paris exhibition and was just beginning to be understood by French art historians.24 In 1870 the Louvre acquired its first painting by Vermeer, The Lace Maker of 1669/70, which later became a highlight of Renoir’s visits to the museum.25 While it is uncertain how familiar Renoir would have been with Vermeer’s work in the mid-1870s, Woman at the Piano succeeds magnificently in updating the traditional paradigm of painting’s relationship to music by merging Impressionist concerns with color and light with references to history, tradition, and the attentive listener.
John Collins

Technical Report

Technical Summary

Renoir began with a commercially primed canvas and roughly separated broad areas of the compositional space with thin layers of opaque paint; a thin, dark-red wash was used to define the piano on the right. This dark red extends past the apparent foldover edge and may indicate that the artist began his composition on an unstretched canvas or on a canvas on a slightly larger, nonstandard stretcher that he later moved to a smaller stretcher. With a relatively limited palette, Renoir created textural differences by manipulating the paint in many ways, including thin washes, scraping, thick impasto, wet-in-wet modeling, and dragging a stiff brush across wet paint. X-radiography indicates compositional changes to both the figure and the piano. Renoir established the initial forms of these elements and brought the background in around them before making subsequent changes to the composition. He altered the figure’s pose—originally in profile, in the final composition she is turned slightly toward the viewer—as well as her dress and hairstyle. After executing the figure in her initial form, Renoir slimmed her overall silhouette and greatly diminished the volume of her skirt. Her hair was altered from a simple, downswept roll to an upswept style with added volume at the crown. The piano was widened, perhaps painted from a different perspective. Initially the overall profile of the piano was more foreshortened, projecting farther into space; however, the top of the piano was slightly less foreshortened, signaling a change in vantage not only farther to the left with respect to the subject, but perhaps also slightly lower. Once the figure and the piano were executed in their final forms, the artist smoothed the transition between figure and ground with a combination of wet-in-wet modeling and working thin, translucent layers over dry paint.

Multilayer Interactive Image Viewer

The multilayer interactive image viewer is designed to facilitate the viewer’s exploration and comparison of the technical images (fig. 3.10).26

Signature

Signed: Renoir. (lower left, in warm-black paint) (fig. 3.11, fig. 3.12).27

Structure and Technique

Support

Canvas

Flax (commonly known as linen).28

Standard format

Measuring from a ridge around the perimeter that appears to be a flattened foldover, the original dimensions appear to be approximately 91.5 × 73 cm; cusping visible in the X-ray corresponds to tack placement for this size. This most likely corresponds to a no. 30 portrait (figure) standard-size (92 × 73 cm) canvas.29

Determining the original size of the canvas is complicated by many factors, as the dimensions may have been changed by the artist and the original foldover edge does not appear to be a straight line. Additional canvas was left exposed around the perimeter when the painting was lined, and during the same treatment it was mounted slightly askew.30

Aspects of the painting’s construction suggest that Renoir may have changed the size of the canvas himself after beginning his composition off the stretcher or stretched to a larger secondary support. The work features uneven edges on all sides, the straightest of which appears to be the left. Folding the painting at the apparent foldover on the right would also make it correspond to a no. 30 portrait (figure) standard-size canvas; some sense of the original dimensions and the nature of the original edges are more apparent in clean-state photos from the 1972 treatment (fig. 3.13). The artist appears to have lined up the painting for stretching on a standard stretcher by the left side, folding over a small portion of the scraped-back, dark-red piano paint (fig. 3.14). After numerous compositional changes, small margins of background paint on the lower left and upper right were likely added by Renoir to square the composition to fit a standard size.

Weave

Plain weave. Average thread count (standard deviation): 22.4V (0.8) × 26.1H (0.5) threads/cm. The horizontal threads were determined to correspond to the warp and the vertical threads to the weft.31

Canvas characteristics

The canvas has mild cusping on the top, bottom, and left edges, corresponding to the placement of the original tacks. On the right, cusping corresponds to the inner set of tack holes (visible along the foldover edge) rather than to the secondary set of tack holes on the current tacking margin (fig. 3.15). There is a double thread fault on the lower left (fig. 3.16).

Stretching

Current stretching: When the painting was lined in 1937, it was placed slightly askew, and the original dimensions were increased on all sides by up to 1 cm. It is possible that the right margin was also extended as part of this treatment (see Conservation History).32

Original stretching: Based on cusping visible in the X-ray, the original tacks were placed approximately 3.5–7 cm apart.

Stretcher/strainer

Current stretcher: Five-member keyable stretcher with a horizontal crossbar. This stretcher is not believed to be original to the painting and probably dates from the 1937 treatment (see Conservation History).

Original stretcher: Unknown.

Manufacturer’s/supplier’s marks

No manufacturer’s or supplier’s marks were observed during the current examination or documented in previous examinations.

Preparatory Layers

Sizing

Cross-sectional analysis indicates a thin, brownish layer of material between the canvas and the ground that closely follows the canvas texture. This material is organic, based on its characteristic bluish fluorescence in UV light, and is estimated to be glue (fig. 3.17).33

Ground application/texture

There is a smooth, single-layer, commercially applied ground, approximately 10–40 µm thick, that extends to the edges of the tacking margins (fig. 3.18).

Color

The ground appears to be warm white, with dark particles visible under stereomicroscopic examination (fig. 3.19). Small percentages of black and iron oxide yellow and red were found in cross-sectional analysis and contribute to this warm appearance. This layer is porous and has darkened over time due to the combined effects of accumulated grime and saturation by the wax-resin lining material (see Conservation History and Condition Summary).

Materials/composition

The ground is predominantly lead white, with small amounts of calcium-based white, iron oxide yellow and red (and associated silicates), and traces of bone black, complex silicates, and barium sulfate extenders.34 The binder is estimated to be oil.35

Compositional Planning/Underdrawing/Painted Sketch

Extent/character

No underdrawing was observed with infrared reflectography or under stereomicroscopic examination.

Paint Layer

Application/technique and artist’s revisions

Renoir began the painting by laying in localized colors, some in opaque layers, and loosely defining various areas of the composition. On the upper left and across much of the top, a bright-white underlayer serves to visually brighten the top half of the painting (fig. 3.20). Underneath the figure and foreground, however, the underlayers appear thick and beige, a color very similar to that of the ground. It is unclear whether this beige layer was intended to function like the white in the top half of the composition or was used to cover previous compositional choices in certain areas. Comparatively wide strokes (up to 3 cm wide) of this warm beige are seen in raking-light and X-ray images throughout the left foreground rug, on either side of the dress (fig. 3.21).

On the right, the artist used a dark-red wash for the piano that extends past the apparent original foldover edge.36 The paint along this edge is very thin, appears scraped back and abraded, and includes only the lower layers of paint and none of the upper details of the gold ornament on the side of the piano or the music books on top of the piano.37 It is possible that Renoir began the work off the stretcher or on a larger, nonstandard stretcher and later shortened it to correspond to a standard-size stretcher. The paint layers present on the far right edge suggest that this change was made before the upper layers of the piano were added. The artist scraped back the paint along the right side and may have changed the size of the work before changing the angle of the piano and adding details such as the gold decorative ornament and the sheet music (fig. 3.22). Once the work was stretched, he “squared” the composition on the upper right and lower left with additional background paint. As these areas lack the previously mentioned opaque underpaints that define their surroundings, they appear quite different in color and texture than the rest of the canvas, but they do appear to be original.

Renoir made substantial changes to both the figure and the piano in this composition. The X-ray indicates that the piano originally appeared thinner and taller. The top of the piano was painted from a slightly downward perspective, with more of the surface visible and featuring additional sheet music and a curved decorative element. The top now appears more foreshortened, and the overall profile of the piano is wider and angled more toward the viewer (fig. 3.15). The sheet music just above the keyboard appears longer and curved in the X-ray, possibly indicating turning or buckling pages, and a radio-opaque form just under the music suggests that a music ledge was articulated at this stage. The X-ray also suggests that the artist raised the position of the candlesticks and altered the curve along the side and legs of the piano in the foreground.

Renoir made numerous changes to the figure’s hairstyle, dress, and profile. Originally her hair, swept down smoothly along the side of her head, was tucked back in a simple roll. Brushstrokes in the hair indicate that the artist simply layered thin strokes in a different direction over the previous arrangement to suggest a more upswept style with added volume at the crown (fig. 3.23). Traction cracking in this area resulted from the thinness of these layers compared to the heavier paint underneath, a trait also visible in raking light. In the X-ray, the figure’s dress appears more voluminous, bowing out around the knees and coming in atop a larger ruffled bottom. The skirt seems to bend in on itself, and the piano seat is almost entirely hidden by it. A radio-transparent band along this inward fold of the skirt indicates that it was originally higher than it appears in the visible composition. In the final arrangement, Renoir reduced the volume of the skirt on both sides of the piano seat, revealing more of the seat and cushion and giving definition to the bottom half of the figure. The artist slimmed her overall silhouette, straightened her neck, and brought up her neck and chin slightly to suggest a more upright posture. The figure appears in full profile, with her head angled more toward the viewer. To accomplish this, Renoir moved her forehead, chin, eyes, and hairline slightly to the left with respect to her nose (fig. 3.24). A visible buildup of the paint in the flesh tones, where the artist subtly altered the head, can be seen in raking light. The figure’s arms remain in the same position in the X-ray and the final composition, but her left hand was moved farther back in space, and paint revealed by cracking in this area indicates that the ruffle at the cuff of her sleeve was probably extended after the wrist was executed (fig. 3.25). Similar cracks also reveal that the artist added flesh tones over the white of the sleeve to create the illusion of a translucent garment.

Renoir established both the female figure and the piano before bringing in the background. In the X-ray, heavy strokes of background paint come up to and around these elements; this is especially noticeable around the figure’s head, where a kind of radio-opaque halo is visible. After the artist settled on the final composition, he softened the transition between figure and ground with additional background paint applied either wet-in-wet or in thin, translucent layers over dry paint.

Renoir’s paint application varies in thickness and texture, from washes and areas scraped with a palette knife, to heavy impasto and visible brushwork (fig. 3.26). The artist mixed many hues directly on the surface of the painting, working wet-in-wet to varying degrees to produce smooth blending, as seen in the figure’s dress and flesh (fig. 3.27). In some areas, short strokes of color or highlights pick up a small amount of the surrounding paint, as on the vase on the left (fig. 3.28). To create the illusion of individual strands of hair framing the figure’s face, Renoir dragged a stiff brush across wet paint, allowing the bristles to cut through and reveal the light underpaint (fig. 3.29). The artist also added details in very dry paint, dragging his brush across the surface, as in the foliage, highlights on the candlesticks, parts of the vase, and upper details of the foreground rug (fig. 3.30).

Painting tools

Soft- and stiff-bristle brushes (strokes up to 1 cm wide); palette knife for scraping; possible wider brushes (strokes about 3 cm wide) used in the foreground underlayers.

Palette

Analysis indicates the presence of the following pigments:38 lead white, zinc white, cobalt blue, cerulean blue, emerald green, viridian, chrome yellow, zinc yellow, bone black, vermilion, madder lake, carmine lake,39 iron oxide red, and red lead.

Analysis suggests that the paint mixtures vary in their complexity, with some simpler mixtures of two or three pigments and other more complex combinations. The flesh tones, for example, contain lead white, vermilion, and red lake.40 The dark-blue ribbon running through the lower portion of the figure’s dress, however, is more complex; in addition to cobalt blue, there is some cerulean blue and chrome yellow, with traces of bone black, zinc yellow, and possibly red lake. The observation of a characteristic bright orange fluorescence under UV light indicates that the artist used a fluorescing red lake in the flesh tones, parts of the front of the piano, and the figure’s hair (fig. 3.31).41 It is likely that Renoir used a different red lake for the main body of the piano. Cross-sectional analysis of a sample from the piano indicates that the artist mixed both lakes; in UV light, the fluorescing and nonfluorescing red lakes are visible side by side (fig. 3.32).42

Binding media

Oil (estimated).43

Surface Finish

Varnish layer/media

The current synthetic varnish was applied in 1972, replacing a natural-resin varnish. It is unclear whether the natural-resin varnish dates from the 1937 lining or from a proposed 1940 treatment (see Conservation History).

Conservation History

The painting was treated by Chicago private conservator Leo Marzolo just before it was acquired by the Art Institute in 1937.44 Treatment at this time included wax-resin lining to a secondary canvas and mounting the lined canvas onto Masonite before restretching the entire structure on a five-member keyable stretcher.45 The painting was minimally scratched in transit in 1940 and repaired in November of the same year by Marzolo.46 The examination report for this treatment confirmed that the work was already wax-resin lined, “then placed onto Masonite.” This record also indicated dissatisfaction with the surface coating and recommended removing the excess wax and replacing it with a wax-damar-mastic mixture. As there is no further documentation, both the specific nature of the previous coating and whether this treatment was completed remain unclear.

The work was superficially treated in 1969, including grime removal with detergent water, thinning of the surface coating, toning of discolored retouching, and resaturation of the surface with three coats of synthetic varnish (an isolating layer of polyvinyl acetate [PVA] AYAA, followed by methacrylate resin L-46, and a final coat of AYAA).47 The painting was treated again in 1972 in preparation for exhibition.48 An aged natural-resin varnish and extensive retouching along the edges were removed, along with the 1969 synthetic varnish system, at this time with a combination of solvent and mechanical cleaning. The painting was again given a three-layer varnish (an isolating layer of polyvinyl acetate [PVA] AYAA, followed by methacrylate resin L-46, and a final coat of AYAA) and retouched. Heavy retouching along the edges compensates for the slightly skewed lining and the abraded paint along the right edge.

Condition Summary

The painting is in good condition, planar and with few losses. It is wax-resin lined to a secondary canvas and is secure. A piece of Masonite was inserted between the lined painting and the restoration stretcher, but it is unclear at this time whether the Masonite panel is attached to the painting with adhesive or held in place by the pressure of the stretching. The overall flatness and planarity of the painting and increased textural presence of the weave are the result of the lining process. The original tacking margins were flattened during the lining process, making the original dimensions somewhat unclear and causing abrasion and minor losses around the perimeter. The work was stretched slightly askew and has been retouched along the left edge near the bottom, the bottom edge on the right, parts of the upper edge, and the entire right side to compensate. Cracking appears to be limited to the figure’s dress, along the arms and shoulders and at the knee, and along areas of dark blue, including the ribbon detail and the shadowed piano seat. The work is slightly saturated by a combination of lining material and a somewhat glossy synthetic varnish.
Kelly Keegan

Frame

Current frame (installed 2008): The frame is not original to the painting. It is a French (Parisian), late-seventeenth-century, Louis XIV convex frame with alternating acanthus leaves, scrolls, and flowers on a hazzled bed with ribbon-and-leaf sight molding. The frame has water gilding over red and red brown bole on gesso. The ornament and sight moldings are selectively burnished; all other gilding is matte. The frame retains its original gilding and glue sizing. The carved oak molding is mitered and joined with angled, dovetailed splines. The molding, from the perimeter to the interior, is ovolo with flowers outer molding; scotia side; convex face with alternating acanthus leaves, scrolls, and flowers on a hazzled, recut bed; cove frieze; and torus with ribbon-and-leaf sight molding (fig. 3.33).49

Previous frame (installed sometime after 1937, removed 2008): The painting was previously housed in an American, twentieth-century, Louis XVI reproduction, fluted scotia frame with corner acanthus leaves, made of carved basswood with a distressed gilt finish (fig. 3.34).

Previous frame (installed prior to or upon the 1911 purchase by the Ryerson family; removed after 1937): The work was previously housed in a late-nineteenth-century, Louis XIV Revival, reverse ogee frame with straight sides and projecting cast plaster fleur-de-lis corner cartouches connected by a symmetrical rhythm of scroll-linked fleurs-de-lis on a quadrillage bed. The frame had an outer leaf-tip and inner linked-bellflower molding with cove sight edge, and an independent fillet liner with cove sight edge (fig. 3.35, fig. 3.36).
Kirk Vuillemot

Selected References

Catalogue de la 2e exposition de peinture, exh. cat. (Alcan-Lévy, 1876), p. 21, cat. 219.74

Possibly Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell/Société des Impressionnistes, Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings and Pastels by Members of “La société des impressionnistes,” exh. cat. (Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, 1883), p. 9, cat. 13.75

Possibly unsigned review of Paintings, Drawings and Pastels by Members of “La société des impressionnistes,” Standard, Apr. 25, 1883, p. 2.76

“Good Prices Realized. Close of the Durand-Ruel Sale of Paintings,” New York Times, May 7, 1887, p. 5.77

Durand-Ruel, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir, exh. cat. (Durand-Ruel, 1900), no. 39.78

“Art Notes and News,” New York Times, Apr. 8, 1900, p. 9.

Durand-Ruel, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Pierre Auguste Renoir, exh. cat. (Durand-Ruel, 1908), no. 5.79

Possibly Durand-Ruel, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Renoir, exh. cat. (Durand-Ruel, 1912), cat. 19.80

“Renoir at Durand-Ruel’s,” American Art News 10, 19 (Feb. 17, 1912), pp. 2, 9 (ill.).

Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago, Some Modern Primitives: International Exhibition of Paintings and Prints, Summer 1931, exh. cat. (Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago, 1931), cat. 73.

Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago, Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago Bulletin (Spring and Summer 1931), p. 33 (ill.).

Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago, Commemorative Exhibition from the Martin A. Ryerson Collection, exh. cat. (Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago, 1932), cat. 18.

Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of “A Century of Progress”: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture; Lent from American Collections, ed. Daniel Catton Rich, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1933), p. 48, cat. 337; pl. 56/cat. 337.

Art Institute of Chicago, “The Century of Progress Exhibition of the Fine Arts,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 27, 4 (Apr.–May 1933), p. 67.

Art Institute of Chicago, “The Rearrangement of the Paintings Galleries,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 27, 7 (Dec. 1933), p. 115.

Pennsylvania Museum of Art, “Manet and Renoir,” Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin 29, 158 (Dec. 1933), p. 19.

Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of “A Century of Progress”: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, 1934, ed. Daniel Catton Rich, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1934), p. 38, cat. 226.

Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art, French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, exh. cat. (Toledo Museum of Art, 1934), cat. 16.

Albert C. Barnes and Violette de Mazia, The Art of Renoir (Minton, Balch, 1935), pp. 261, no. 97 (ill.); 401, no. 97; 451.

Henry McBride, “The Renoirs of America: An Appreciation of the Metropolitan Museum’s Exhibition,” Art News 35, 31 (May 1, 1937), p. 158.

Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art, Paintings by French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, exh. cat. (Toledo Museum of Art, 1937), cat. 24 (ill.).

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Renoir: A Special Exhibition of His Paintings, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Bradford, 1937), no. 27 (ill.).

Josephine L. Allen, “Paintings by Renoir,” Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 32, 5 (May 1937), p. 112.

Art Institute of Chicago, “Annual Report of the Director,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago Report for the Year Nineteen Hundred Thirty-Seven 32, 3, pt. 3 (Mar. 1938), p. 46.

Art Institute of Chicago, “Exhibition of the Ryerson Gift,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 32, 1 (Jan. 1938), front cover (ill.), p. 4.

Josephine L. Allen, “The Entire Ryerson Collection Goes to the Chicago Art Institute,” Art News 36, 21 (Feb. 19, 1938), pp. 10 (ill.), 11.

Lionello Venturi, Les archives de l’impressionnisme: Lettres de Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, et autres; Mémoires de Paul Durand-Ruel; Documents, vol. 2 (Durand-Ruel, 1939), p. 258.

Alfred M. Frankfurter, “Master Paintings and Drawings of Six Centuries at the Golden Gate,” Art News 38, 38 (July 13, 1940), pp. 11 (ill.), 14.

Julia G. Andrews, “Rare Paintings Displayed,” San Diego Union, Oct. 13, 1940, p. 7C.

Golden Gate International Exposition, Art, Official Catalog, exh. cat. (Recorder/H. S. Crocker/Schwabacher-Frey, 1940), pp. 20, cat. 292; 66, cat. 292 (ill.).

Reginald Howard Wilenski, Modern French Painters (Reynal & Hitchcook, [1940]), p. 337.81

Duveen Galleries, Renoir: Centennial Loan Exhibition, 1841–1941; For the Benefit of the Free French Relief Committee (Vilmorin/Bradford, 1941), pp. 36, cat. 14 (ill.); 123–124, cat. 14.

Art Institute of Chicago, “The United States Now an Art Publishing Center,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 36, 2 (Feb. 1942), p. 30.

“Chicago Perfects Its Renoir Group,” Art News 44, 16, pt. 1 (Dec. 1–14, 1945), p. 18.

Bruno F. Schneider, Renoir (Safari, [1957]), pp. 24, 26 (ill.). Translated into English by Desmond and Camille Clayton as Renoir (Crown, 1978), pp. 26 (ill.), 34.

Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces in the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1952), (ill.).

Charles Fabens Kelley, “Chicago: Record Years,” Art News 51, 4 (June–Aug. 1952), p. 107.

Dorothy Bridaham, Renoir in the Art Institute of Chicago (Conzett & Huber, 1954), pl. 1.

Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), pp. 277 (ill.), 394.82

Frederick A. Sweet, “Great Chicago Collectors,” Apollo 84, 55 (Sept. 1966), pp. 200, fig. 28; 202.

Charles C. Cunningham, Instituto de arte de Chicago, El mundo de los museos 2 (Editorial Codex, 1967), pp. 11, ill. 32; 58, ill. 2.

André Parinaud and Charles C. Cunningham, Art Institute of Chicago, Grands musées 2 (Hachette-Filipacchi, 1969), pp. 36, fig. 2; 69, no. 32.

Charles C. Cunningham and Satoshi Takahashi, Shikago bijutsukan [Art Institute of Chicago], Museums of the World 32 (Kodansha, 1970), pp. 50, pl. 36; 159.

John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (Abrams, 1970), p. 84 (ill.).83

François Daulte, Auguste Renoir: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, vol. 1, Figures, 1860–1890 (Durand-Ruel, 1971), pp. 170–71, cat. 187 (ill.).

Elda Fezzi, L’opera completa di Renoir: Nel periodo impressionista, 1869–1883, Classici dell’arte 59 (Rizzoli, 1972), p. 99, cat. 232 (ill.).84

Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Renoir, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1973), pp. 26; 68–69, cat. 20 (ill.); 74; 138; 210; 211; 214.

Wildenstein, Renoir: The Gentle Rebel; A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Association for Mentally Ill Children, with a foreword by François Daulte, exh. cat. (Wildenstein, 1974), cat. 10 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, 100 Masterpieces (Art Institute of Chicago, 1978), pp. 22; 98–99, pl. 55.

Patricia Erens, Masterpieces: Famous Chicagoans and Their Paintings (Chicago Review, 1979), p. 36.

J. Patrice Marandel, The Art Institute of Chicago: Favorite Impressionist Paintings (Crown, 1979), pp. 68–69 (ill.).

Isetan Museum of Art and Kyoto Municipal Museum, Exposition Renoir, exh. cat. (Isetan Museum of Art/Kyoto Municipal Museum/Yomiuri Shimbun Sha, 1979), cat. 16 (ill.).

Charles F. Stuckey, with the assistance of Naomi E. Maurer, Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, [1979]), p. 158, fig. 2 (ill.).

Diane Kelder, The Great Book of French Impressionism (Abbeville, 1980), pp. 259 (ill.), 438.85

Diane Kelder, The Great Book of French Impressionism, Tiny Folios (Abbeville, 1980), p. 156, pl. 16.

Musée Toulouse-Lautrec and Art Institute of Chicago, Trésors impressionnistes du Musée de Chicago, exh. cat. (Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, 1980), pp. 38, no. 19 (ill.); 68.

Possibly Kate Flint, ed., Impressionists in England: The Critical Reception (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984), pp. 58, 361.86

Anne Distel, “Renoir’s Collector: The Pâtissier, the Priest and the Prince,” in Hayward Gallery, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Renoir, exh. cat. (Arts Council of Great Britain, 1985), p. 27, n. 22.

Anne Distel, “Les amateurs de Renoir: Le prince, le prêtre et le pâtissier,” in Hayward Gallery, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Renoir, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1985), p. 32, n. 22.

Hayward Gallery, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Renoir, exh. cat. (Arts Council of Great Britain, 1985), pp. 80, cat. 35 (ill.); 208, cat. 35 (ill.); 256.

Hayward Gallery, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Renoir, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1985), pp. 136–137, cat. 34 (ill.).

Denys Sutton, “Renoir’s Kingdom,” Apollo 121, 278 (Apr. 1985), pp. 244; 245, pl. 10.

Charles S. Moffett, ed., with the assistance of Ruth Berson, Barbara Lee Williams, and Fronia E. Wissman, The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886, exh. cat. (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1986), pp. 164.

Phillippe Ariès and Georges Duby, eds., Histoire de la vie privée: De la Révolution à la Grande Guerre, vol. 4 (Éd. du Seuil, 1987), p. 487 (ill.). Translated by Arthur Goldhammer as A History of Private Life: From the Fires of Revolution to the Great War, vol. 4 (Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 1990), p. 532 (ill.).

Richard R. Brettell, French Impressionists (Art Institute of Chicago/Abrams, 1987), pp. 31, 33 (ill.), 119.

Horst Keller, Auguste Renoir (Bruckmann, 1987), pp. 56, fig. 41; 165.

Ministry of Culture; State Hermitage Museum; Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and Art Institute of Chicago, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: Shedevry frantsuzskoi zhivopisi XIX–nachala XX veka, iz Muzeia Metropoliten v N’iu-Iorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago [From Delacroix to Matisse: Masterpieces of French painting of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago], trans. from English by Iu. A. Kleiner and A. A. Zhukov, exh. cat. (Avrora, 1988), cat. 20.

Robert Trachtenberg, “Great Art Where You Least Expect It: The Pioneers of Hollywood Art Colleting,” Spy (Sept. 1988), pp. 97–98.

Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago, selected by James N. Wood and Katharine C. Lee (Art Institute of Chicago/New York Graphic Society Books/Little, Brown, 1988), pp. 9, 56 (ill.).

Birger Carlström, Hide-and-Seek: Text and Picture in the Pictures; Impressionists from Turner from [sic] Gainsborough (Carlström, 1989), pp. 42; 164, pl. 36; 165, pl. 36.

Raffaele De Grada, Renoir (Giorgio Mondadori, 1989), p. 48, pl. 27.

Sophie Monneret, Renoir, Profils de l’art (Chêne, 1989), pp. 64–65, fig. 3.

Violette de Mazia, “Form and Matter: The Form of Renoir’s Color,” Vistas (V.O.L.N./Barnes Foundation) 5, 2 (1991), pp. 15; pl. 38.

M. Therese Southgate, “The Cover,” JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 270, 18 (Nov. 10, 1993), front cover (ill.), p. 2145.

Art Institute of Chicago, Treasures of 19th- and 20th-Century Painting: The Art Institute of Chicago, with an introduction by James N. Wood (Art Institute of Chicago/Abbeville, 1993), p. 56 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago and Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Shikago bijutsukan ten: Kindai kaiga no 100-nen [Masterworks of modern art from the Art Institute of Chicago], exh. cat. (Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994), pp. 50–51, cat. 6 (ill.).

Anne Distel, Douglas Druick, Gloria Groom, and Rodolphe Rapetti, Gustave Caillebotte: Urban Impressionist, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Musée d’Orsay/Art Institute of Chicago/Abbeville, 1995), p. 193, fig. 1. Translated into French by Jeanne Bouniort as Gustave Caillebotte: 1848–1894, exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1994), p. 231, fig. 1.

Gerhard Gruitrooy, Renoir: A Master of Impressionism (Todtri, 1994), p. 29 (ill.).

Ruth Berson, ed., The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886; Documentation, vol. 2, Exhibited Works (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/University of Washington Press, 1996), pp. 44, 63 (ill.).

Michael Shapiro, ed., Rings: Five Passions in World Art, exh. cat. (High Museum of Art/Abrams, 1996), pp. 298–99 (ill.).

Karin Sagner-Düchting, Renoir: Paris and the Belle Époque, trans. Fiona Elliott (Prestel, 1996), p. 72 (ill.).

Douglas W. Druick, Renoir, Artists in Focus (Art Institute of Chicago/Abrams, 1997), pp. 6; 15 (detail); 28; 30; 46; 84, pl. 3; 109.

Charlotte Nalle Eyerman, “The Composition of Femininity: The Significance of the ‘Woman at the Piano’ Motif in Nineteenth-Century French Culture from Daumier to Renoir” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1997), pp. 143; 245, fig. 58.

James Elkins, Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles? On the Modern Origins of Pictorial Complexity (Routledge, 1999), opp. p. 1, pl. 1; pp. xviii; 1; 4; 5, pl. 3; 8–9; 49; 78; 228.

Renaud Temperini, “Estetiche della modernità,” in La pittura Francese, vol. 3, ed. Pierre Rosenberg, trans. Cosima Campagnolo, Valentina Palombi, and Stefano Salpietro (Electra, 1999), pp. 816, fig. 832; 818.87

Art Institute of Chicago, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in the Art Institute of Chicago, selected by James N. Wood (Art Institute of Chicago/Hudson Hills, 2000), pp. 9, 52 (ill.).

Patrick Shaw Cable, “Questions of Work, Class, Gender, and Style in the Art and Life of Gustave Caillebotte” (Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University, 2000), pp. 47; 258, fig. 15.

Bridgestone Museum of Art and Nagoya City Art Museum, Renoir: From Outsider to Old Master, 1870–1892, exh. cat. (Bridgestone Museum of Art/Nagoya City Art Museum/Chunichi Shimbun, 2001), p. 84, fig. 40.

Gilles Néret, Renoir: Painter of Happiness, 1841–1919, trans. Josephine Bacon (Taschen, 2001), pp. 84–85 (ill); 110.

Michael Marrinan, “Caillebotte as Professional Painter: From Studio to the Public Eye,” in Gustave Caillebotte and the Fashioning of Identity in Impressionist Paris, ed. Norma Broude (Rutgers University Press, 2002), pp. 50; 51, fig. 21.

Sylvie Patin, L’impressionisme (Bibliothèque des Arts, 2002), pp. 119; 120–21, fig. 88.

John House, Impressionism: Paint and Politics (Yale University Press, 2004), pp. 56, 57, pl. 44.

Aviva Burnstock, Klaas Jan van den Berg, and John House, “Painting Techniques of Pierre-Auguste Renoir: 1868–1919,” Art Matters: Netherlandish Technical Studies in Art 3 (2005), pp. 51, 52, 54.

Ann Dumas, “Renoir and the Feminine Ideal: An Introduction to Renoir’s Women,” in Ann Dumas and John Collins, Renoir’s Women, exh. cat. (Columbus Museum of Art/Merrell, 2005), pp. 26; 29, fig. 18.

Richard R. Brettell, “Gauguin’s Paintings in the Impressionist Exhibition of 1882,” in Richard R. Brettell and Anne-Brigitte Fonsmark, Gauguin and Impressionism, exh. cat. (Kimbell Art Museum/Ordrupgaard, 2005), pp. 158; 159, fig. 123.

Kyoko Kagawa, Runowaru [Pierre-Auguste Renoir], Seiyo kaiga no kyosho [Great masters of Western art] 4 (Shogakukan, 2006), p. 25 (ill.).

Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, with the collaboration of Camille Frémontier-Murphy, Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. 1, 1858–1881 (Bernheim-Jeune, 2007), p. 403, cat. 372 (ill.).

Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, with the assistance of Dorota Chudzicka and Jill Shaw, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Kimbell Art Museum, 2008), pp. 16 (ill.); 66–67, cat. 24 (ill.); 69. Simultaneously published as Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, with the assistance of Dorota Chudzicka and Jill Shaw, The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 16 (ill.); 66–67, cat. 24 (ill.); 69.88

Gloria Groom, “The Social Network of Fashion,” in Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, ed. Gloria Groom, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Metropolitan Museum of Art/Musée d’Orsay/Yale University Press, 2012), p. 35.

Gloria Groom, “Les réseaux mondains de la mode,” in L’impressionnisme et la mode, ed. Gloria Groom, exh. cat. (Musée d’Orsay/Skira Flammarion, 2012), p. 77.

Gloria Groom, ed., Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Metropolitan Museum of Art/Musée d’Orsay/Yale University Press, 2012), p. 289, cat. 55 (ill.).

Gloria Groom, ed., L’Impressionnisme et la mode, exh. cat. (Musée d’Orsay/Skira Flammarion, 2012), p. 301, cat. 100.

Justine de Young, “Fashion and Intimate Portraits,” in Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, ed. Gloria Groom, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Metropolitan Museum of Art/Musée d’Orsay/Yale University Press, 2012), pp. 120; 121, cat. 55 (ill.).

Justine de Young, “La mode en portraits intimes,” in L’impressionnisme et la mode, ed. Gloria Groom, exh. cat. (Musée d’Orsay/Skira Flammarion, 2012), pp. 150; 158, cat. 100 (ill.).

Janet Whitmore, “Whitmore Reviews: Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity,” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 13, 1 (Spring 2014), p. 20, fig. 8.

Woman at the Piano (Daulte 187) corresponds to François Daulte, Auguste Renoir: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, vol. 1, Figures, 1860–1890 (Durand-Ruel, 1971), pp. 170–71, cat. 187 (ill.). Woman at the Piano (Dauberville 372) corresponds to Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, with the collaboration of Camille Frémontier-Murphy, Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. 1, 1858–1881 (Bernheim-Jeune, 2007), p. 403, cat. 372 (ill.). The Art Institute currently uses a title that is an English translation of the title that was given to the painting when it was exhibited at the second Impressionist exhibition. The painting had the following titles during the lifetime of the artist:

Apr. 1876: Femme au Piano (Catalogue de la 2e exposition de peinture, exh. cat. [Alcan-Lévy, 1876], p. 21, cat. 219; confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago.)

Possibly Apr. 1883: Femme au piano (Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell/Société des Impressionnistes, Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings and Pastels by Members of “La société des impressionnistes,” exh. cat. [Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, 1883], p. 9, cat. 13. The Durand-Ruel Archives cannot confirm that the Art Institute’s painting was the one exhibited in London in April–July 1883. According to Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago: “Il est possible qu’il s’agisse du même tableau mais nous n’avons aucun document nous le prouvant.”)

Sept. 8, 1886: La Femme au piano (Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock book for 1884–90 [no. 1200]; see Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago.)

Apr. 1900: Jeune Femme au Piano (Durand-Ruel, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir, exh. cat. [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1900], no. 39; confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago.)

Nov. 14, 1908: Jeune femme au piano, 1878 (Durand-Ruel, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Pierre Auguste Renoir, exh. cat. [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1908], no. 5; confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago.)

Dec. 16, 1911: Jeune femme au piano (Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1888–93 [no. 112]; see Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago.)

Possibly Feb. 14, 1912: Fillette en robe bleue, 1876 (Durand-Ruel, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Renoir, exh. cat. [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1912], cat. 19; according to “Renoir at Durand-Ruel’s,” American Art News 10, 19 (Feb. 17, 1912), pp. 2, 9 (ill.), the Art Institute’s painting, which had recently been purchased by Martin A. Ryerson, was included in this exhibition. The article does not specify under which catalogue number or title the painting was exhibited, but it is possible that it was cat. 19, Fillette en robe bleue, 1876.)

See Monique Nonne, “Young Girls at the Piano (Jeunes filles au piano),” in Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Renoir in the 20th Century, exh. cat. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art/Philadelphia Museum of Art/Hatje Cantz, 2010), pp. 171–73. The poet Stéphane Mallarmé heralded the acquisition as a “definitive canvas, so calm and so free, a work of maturity.” Stéphane Mallarmé to Henri Roujon, May 12, 1892, in Stéphane Mallarmé, Correspondance, ed. Henri Mondor and Lloyd James Austin (Gallimard, 1981), vol. 5, pp. 77–78; translated in John House, “Young Girls at the Piano,” in Hayward Gallery, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Renoir, exh. cat. (Arts Council of Great Britain, 1985), p. 261. Dauberville refers to the Renoir catalogue raisonné: Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vols. 1–5 (Bernheim-Jeune, 2007–14).

Outside the mainstream, Cabaner made a living by playing piano at café concerts and dance halls, but he also composed music himself and gained a reputation for putting the poetry of Jean Richepin, Charles Baudelaire, and others to music. Before Cabaner’s premature death in August 1881, a diverse group would often gather at his apartment to hear these songs and to listen to recitals by other young French composers. It was there that Emmanuel Chabrier performed czardas (Hungarian folk tunes), as well as his own lyrical compositions, to the delight of an elite audience including Rivière and Renoir. Georges Rivière, Renoir et ses amis (H. Floury, 1921), p. 117. For more on this fascinating character on the margins of Impressionism, see Jean-Jacques Lefrère and Michael Pakenham, Cabaner, poète au piano (L’Échoppe, 1994).

Using the toolbar at the bottom right, any two images of the painting may be selected for comparison by clicking the layers icon to the right of the slider bar. The slider bar may be moved to transition back and forth between the two chosen images. The jagged line icon brings up a list of available annotations, or colored lines that show the significant features visible in each image, which may be turned on or off in any combination. For example, the red annotation lines, associated with the natural-light image, trace some of the painting’s key compositional features. When overlaid onto a technical image (X-ray, raking light, UV, etc.), the red outlines help the viewer to better observe how features in the technical image relate to or diverge from the painting as seen with the naked eye. (When annotations are turned on, a legend appears in the upper right showing each color and its associated image type.) The circular arrow icon returns the image to the default settings (natural light, full-image view, natural-light [red] annotation on). The four-arrow icon toggles between the view of the image in the page and a full-screen view of the image. In the upper right corner, the vertical slider bar may be moved to zoom into or out of the image; different parts of the image can be accessed by clicking and dragging within the image itself. The icon in the upper left corner opens a small view of the full image, within which a red box indicates the portion of the overall image being viewed when zooming is enabled.

Pigments were identified using the following methods: lead white, cobalt blue, viridian, chrome yellow (XRF, PLM, SEM/EDX); zinc white (XRF, SEM/EDX); emerald green, vermilion, bone black (XRF, PLM 2012 [identified as unspecified black in PLM 1972]); red lakes (PLM, SERS); magnesium-containing cerulean blue, zinc yellow, iron oxide red (SEM/EDX); red lead (PLM). PLM results from June 1972 were published in Marigene H. Butler, “Technical Note,” in Paintings by Renoir (Art Institute of Chicago, 1973), p. 211. See also Butler, microscopy notes, June 1972. PLM results were confirmed and amended by Inge Fiedler. See Fiedler, microanalysis summary, Jan. 5, 2012. Both documents are on file in the Conservation Department, Art Institute of Chicago. For more detailed results and specific conditions used, see Anna Vila-Espuña and Gwénaëlle Gautier, “Renoir_Piano_37_1025_XRF_Results,” Sept. 18, 2009; Federica Pozzi, “Ren_WomanAtPiano_1937_1025_SERS_Results,” May 14, 2013; Inge Fiedler, “1937_1025_Renoir_analytical_report,” Nov. 29, 2013, all on file in the Conservation Department, Art Institute of Chicago. Analysis was carried out on selected areas and may not include all pigments present in the painting.

Though small areas on the front of the piano show characteristic orange fluorescence in UV light, it appears that the rest of the piano was painted with a different red lake. PLM and cross-sectional analysis confirm the presence of two red lakes of slightly different shades, one fluorescing and the other nonfluorescing. Identifying the specific type of lake used only by its autofluorescence under UV is difficult, as many factors, including the type of substrate, binders, varnishes, and admixtures with other pigments, can ultimately affect the perceived color of the fluorescence. Some types of madder and purpurin lake pigments have been reported to fluoresce orange, but other lakes, such as lacs, may fluoresce as well. The characteristics of red lakes, including their fluorescence under UV light, are discussed in Helmut Schweppe and John Winter, “Madder and Alizarin,” in Artists’ Pigments: A Handbook of Their History and Characteristics, vol. 3, ed. Elisabeth West FitzHugh (Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 124–26. See also Ruth Johnston-Feller, Color Science in the Examination of Museum Objects: Nondestructive Procedures (Getty Conservation Institute, 2001), p. 207.

See Catalogue de la 2e exposition de peinture, exh. cat. (Alcan-Lévy, 1876), p. 21, cat. 219, which lists Femme au piano as “appartient à M. Poupin.” According to Hayward Gallery, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Renoir, exh. cat. (Arts Council of Great Britain, 1985), p. 208, Poupin had premises at 8, rue La Fayette, was a business associate of Durand-Ruel’s, and “perhaps may simply have been acting on Durand-Ruel’s behalf, as the title of the painting he lent in 1876 (Femme au piano) is identical to that of a canvas listed as being in the dealer’s stock in 1876.” Hayward Gallery, Renoir, further states that “Durand-Ruel’s stock lists for 1876 also include a Femme au piano, which was deposited with a M. Cottineau of the rue Rambuteau on 3 July 1880, but there is no further record of it.” See also Ruth Berson, ed., The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874–1886; Documentation, vol. 2, Exhibited Works (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/University of Washington Press, 1996), pp. 44, 63 (ill.), which also identifies cat. 219 as the Art Institute’s painting.

In the exhibition catalogue, cat. 13 is listed as Femme au piano with an asking price of £100; see Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell/Société des Impressionnistes, Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings and Pastels by Members of “La société des impressionnistes,” exh. cat. (Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, 1883), p. 9, cat. 13. According to Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 2, Nos. 1–968 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), pp. 283–84, cat. 758; and Frances Fowle, “Making Money out of Monet: Marketing Monet in Britain 1870–1905,” in Monet and French Landscape: Vétheuil and Normandy, ed. Frances Fowle (National Galleries of Scotland, 2006), p. 145, this exhibition was organized by Durand-Ruel. The Durand-Ruel Archives cannot confirm that the Art Institute’s painting was the one exhibited in London in April–July 1883. According to Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago: “Il est possible qu’il s’agisse du même tableau mais nous n’avons aucun document nous le prouvant.”

According to Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, with the collaboration of Camille Frémontier-Murphy, Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. 1, 1858–1881 (Bernheim-Jeune, 2007), p. 403, cat. 372 (ill.). See also Moore’s Art Galleries, New York, The Durand-Ruel Collection of French Paintings, sale cat. (Moore’s Art Galleries, May 5–6, 1887), p. 28, lot 93. A sale price is listed in “Good Prices Realized. Close of the Durand-Ruel Sale of Paintings,” New York Times (May 7, 1887), p. 5. However, according to the Durand-Ruel Archives, “Le tableau n’a pas été vendu en 1887 lors de la vente à la ‘Moore’s Art Galleries’: il s’agissait d’une vente fictive (aucun tableau n’a été vendu) destinée à faire de la publicité pour les tableaux apportés par Durand-Ruel à New York.” See Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago.

This transaction is record in the Durand-Ruel, New York, stock book for 1888–93 (no. 112, as Jeune femme au piano): “vendu à Martin A. Ryerson le 16 décembre 1911 pour $16,000, Jeune femme au piano,” as confirmed by Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago. This corrects information previously published by François Daulte and by Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville that the painting was purchased by Ryerson for 16,000 francs; see François Daulte, Auguste Renoir: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, vol. 1, Figures, 1860–1890 (Durand-Ruel, 1971), pp. 170, cat. 187 (ill.), and Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, with the collaboration of Camille Frémontier-Murphy, Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. 1, 1858–1881 (Bernheim-Jeune, 2007), p. 403, cat. 372 (ill.). This also updates information provided to the Art Institute of Chicago by Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy, Dec. 14, 1994, which states that Ryerson purchased the painting for $15,000, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago.

In the exhibition catalogue, cat. 13 is listed as Femme au piano with an asking price of £100. See Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell/Société des Impressionnistes, Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings and Pastels by Members of “La société des impressionnistes,” exh. cat. (Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, 1883), p. 9, cat. 13. According to Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 2, Nos. 1–968 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), pp. 283–84, cat. 758; and Frances Fowle, “Making Money out of Monet: Marketing Monet in Britain 1870–1905,” in Monet and French Landscape: Vétheuil and Normandy, ed. Frances Fowle (National Galleries of Scotland, 2006), p. 145, this exhibition was organized by Durand-Ruel. The Durand-Ruel Archives cannot confirm that the Art Institute’s painting was the one exhibited in London in April–July 1883. According to Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago: “Il est possible qu’il s’agisse du même tableau mais nous n’avons aucun document nous le prouvant.”

According to Daniel Wildenstein, Monet: Catalogue raisonné/Werkverzeichnis, vol. 2, Nos. 1–968 (Taschen/Wildenstein Institute, 1996), pp. 283–84, cat. 758; and Frances Fowle, “Making Money out of Monet: Marketing Monet in Britain 1870–1905,” in Monet and French Landscape: Vétheuil and Normandy, ed. Frances Fowle (National Galleries of Scotland, 2006), p. 145, this exhibition was organized by Durand-Ruel. In the exhibition catalogue, cat. 13 is listed as Femme au piano with an asking price of £100. The Durand-Ruel Archives cannot confirm that the Art Institute’s painting was the one exhibited in London in April–July 1883. According to Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago: “Il est possible qu’il s’agisse du même tableau mais nous n’avons aucun document nous le prouvant.”

Loc./Neg. #	Format	Purpose	Date	Lighting, Notes
C37737	8 × 10 B&W negative	Posttreatment	Unknown	Normal, overall
C15042.	8 × 10 B&W negative	Unknown	Unknown	Normal, overall
C50025	8 × 10 CT	Polaroid project	Unknown
E38834	4 × 5 CT	Unknown	Unknown	Normal, detail: center
E38835	4 × 5 CT	Unknown	Unknown	Normal, detail: hands
C5961	Unknown	Unknown	Dec. 1924?
Conservation	8 × 10 B&W negative	Pretreatment	Jan. 6, 1972	Normal, overall
Conservation	8 × 10 B&W negative	Pretreatment	Jan. 6, 1972	Infrared, overall
Conservation	8 × 10 B&W negative	Pretreatment	Jan. 6, 1972	Ultraviolet, overall
Conservation	8 × 10 B&W negative	Midtreatment	June 21, 1972?	Normal, overall; clean state
Conservation	35 mm slides	Posttreatment	June 1972	Normal (12 slides including varying light sources; details: hands, head, floor, lower skirt, candle/upper right piano)
Conservation	8 × 10 B&W negative	Midtreatment	Sept. 2, 1972?	Ultraviolet, overall; during cleaning
E9227	4 × 5 CT	Unknown	Feb. 5, 1986	Normal, overall
E13867	4 × 5 CT	Unknown	Dec. 1987	Normal, overall
E19335	4 × 5 CT	Unknown	Nov. 17, 1989	Normal, overall
E37884	4 × 5 CT	Unknown	Nov. 15, 1999	Normal, overall
G28505	Digital	Exhibition	Mar. 11, 2008	Normal, overall
132369	Digital	Exhibition	Nov. 2008	Annotated conservation image E37884
Conservation	Digital	OSCI	Sept. 14, 2009	Details of frame, verso, and labels (9 total)
Conservation	Digital	OSCI	Sept. 14, 2009	Infrared (Fuji, 1000B/2 mm filter), overall
Conservation	Digital	OSCI	Sept. 14–15, 2009	Details of surface (12 total)
Conservation	Digital	OSCI	Sept. 15, 2009	Raking light, overall
Conservation	Digital	OSCI	Sept. 15, 2009	Normal, overall
Conservation	Digital	OSCI	Sept. 15, 2009	Ultraviolet, overall
Conservation	X-ray	OSCI	Sept. 15, 2009	X-ray films scanned/digitally composited, overall
Conservation	Digital	OSCI	Sept. 16, 2009	Photomicrographs of sample sites and surface (24 total)
Conservation	Digital	OSCI	Sept. 21, 2009	Infrared (Inframetrics 1.5–1.73 µm filter), overall; composite
Conservation	Digital	OSCI	Sept. 28, 2009	Raking light details: lower left and figure face
G39028	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Normal, overall; composite of G39729–G39753
G39030	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Normal, frame only
G39729	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39730	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39731	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39732	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39733	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39734	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39735	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39736	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39737	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39738	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39739	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39740	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39741	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39742	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39743	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39744	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39745	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39746	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39747	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39748	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39749	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39750	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39751	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39752	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39753	Digital	OSCI	Feb. 23, 2012	Section
G39029	Digital	OSCI	July 24, 2012	Ultraviolet, overall

Cat. 3

Sensuality and the Parisienne

A New Direction for Renoir’s Genre Painting

Woman at the Piano at the Second Impressionist Exhibition

Technical Report

Technical Summary

Multilayer Interactive Image Viewer

Signature

Structure and Technique

Support

Canvas

Standard format

Weave

Canvas characteristics

Stretching

Stretcher/strainer

Manufacturer’s/supplier’s marks

Preparatory Layers

Sizing

Ground application/texture

Color

Materials/composition

Compositional Planning/Underdrawing/Painted Sketch

Extent/character

Paint Layer

Application/technique and artist’s revisions

Painting tools

Palette

Binding media

Surface Finish

Varnish layer/media

Conservation History

Condition Summary

Frame

Provenance

Exhibition History

Selected References

Other Documentation

Documentation from the Durand-Ruel Archives

Labels and Inscriptions

Undated

Pre-1980

Post-1980

Examination and Analysis Techniques

X-radiography

Infrared Reflectography

Transmitted Infrared

Visible Light

Ultraviolet

High-Resolution Visible Light (and Ultraviolet)

Microscopy and Photomicrographs

X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF)

Polarized Light Microscopy (PLM)

Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM/EDX)

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)

Automated Thread Counting

Image Registration Software

Image Inventory