Édouard Manet

Auguste Pellerin, Paris (acquired by 1910)

Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris; Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris & Paul Cassirer, Berlin (acquired from the above on 2nd February 1911)

Durand-Ruel Gallery, New York (acquired from the above on 28th April 1915)

Mr & Mrs Nelson Robinson, U.S.A. (acquired from the above on 28th April 1915)

Durand-Ruel Gallery, New York (acquired from the above on 19th May 1927)

Charles Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the above on 31st May 1927)

Galerie Matthiesen, Berlin

Justin K.Thannhauser, Berlin & New York

Theodore Schoken, New York (acquired circa 1956. Sold: Sotheby's, London, 29th April 1964, lot 38)

Fergusson Collection (purchased at the above sale)

Galerie Schmidt, Paris

Mr & Mrs Henry Moore, Perry Green, Much Hadham (acquired from the above on 6th March 1984)

The Henry Moore Foundation, England (acquired from the above. Sold: Sotheby's, London, 3rd December 1996, lot 17)

Purchased at the above sale by the late owner

Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Les Manet de la Collection Pellerin, 1910, no. 32

Berlin, Galerie Matthiesen, Edouard Manet, 1928, no. 56, illustrated in the catalogue

New York, Wildenstein Inc., Nude in Painting, 1956, no. 27

Paris, Galerie Schmit, Lumières sur la peinture XIXe-XXe siècles, 1983, no. 51, illustrated in the catalogue

Leeds, Leeds City Art Gallery (on loan 1989-1996)

Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz,  Linie, Licht und Schatten. Meisterzeichnungen und Skulpturen der Sammlung Jan und Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 1999, no. 99, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, The Timeless Eye. Master Drawings from the Jan and Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski Collection,1999, no. 121, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Miradas sin Tiempo. Dibujos, Pinturas y Esculturas de la Coleccion Jan y Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2000, no. 127, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, La Passion du Dessin. Collection Jan et Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2002, no. 111, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Vienna, Albertina, Goya bis Picasso. Meisterwerke der Sammlung Jan Krugier und Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2005, no. 68, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Munich, Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Das Ewige Auge - Von Rembrandt bis Picasso. Meisterwerke aus der Sammlung Jan Krugier und Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2007, no. 110, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud; Florence, Palazzo Strozzi & Vienna, Albertina, Impressionismus - Wie das Licht auf die Leinwand kam, 2008-10, no. 278, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Théodore Duret, Histoire d'Edouard Manet et de son œuvre, Paris, 1902, no. 65, mentioned p. 297

Louis Hourticq, Manet, Paris, 1912, illustrated pl. 44

Julius Meier-Graefe, Edouard Manet, Munich, 1912, mentioned p. 271

Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, Manet raconté par lui-même, Paris, 1926, vol. II, illustrated fig. 274

Paul Jamot & Georges Wildenstein, Manet, Paris, 1932, vol. I, no. 423, catalogued p. 170; vol. II, no. 423, illustrated p. 109

Robert Rey, Choix de soixante-quatre dessins de Edouard Manet, Paris, 1932, illustrated fig. 11

Adolphe Tabarant, Manet et ses œuvres, Paris, 1947, no. 461, illustrated p. 617

John Rewald, Edouard Manet Pastels, Oxford, 1947, no. 22, illustrated p. 35

Kurt Martin, Edouard Manet, Aquarelle und Pastelle, Basel & Stuttgart, 1958, no. 17

Denis Rouart & Sandra Orienti, Tout l'œuvre peint d'Edouard Manet, Paris, 1970, no. 243

Denis Rouart & Daniel Wildenstein, Edouard Manet, Catalogue Raisonné, Lausanne & Paris, 1975, vol. II, no. 23,  illustrated p. 10

Beatrice Farwell, Manet and the Nude. A Study in Iconography in the Second Empire, New York & London, 1981, illustrated p. 184

Executed on linen, which is unlined. Apart from one very small spot of retouching near the centre of the left edge, visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although the darker tones are more subtle in the original.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Executed circa 1878-79, the present work is one of a series of three pastels depicting the same model in various stages of her toilette. Femme à la jarretière, in the collection of the Ordrupgaard Museum in Copenhagen, shows the woman undressing in readiness for her bath; the present work shows her preparing for the bath; and the third, Femme dans un tub (fig. 1), shows her bathing. Both Manet's choice of subject matter and his vivid use of pastels are strongly reminiscent of Degas' depictons of bathers (fig. 2).

 

The model who posed for this series of female figures was Méry Laurent, née Anne-Rose Louviot (1849-1900; fig. 3). Born in Nancy, at the age of sixteen she moved to Paris, where she had a brief career as an actress. She soon became a muse of several artists and poets, and held a salon frequented by Stéphane Mallarmé, Emile Zola, Marcel Proust, James Whistler and Manet. Laurent first met Manet in 1876 when she accompanied the collector Alphonse Hirsch on a visit to the artist’s studio to see the paintings which had been refused by the jury of that year’s Paris Salon. Laurent became one of Manet’s closest friends and a regular model during the last years of his life. She posed for Manet as an elegant Parisienne, wearing fashionable clothes, as well as in the nude for several figure studies.

 

Manet only began using pastel late in his life, but soon mastered the subtleties of the medium. Commenting on the artist’s skill, Françoise Cachin wrote: ‘Between 1879 and 1882, Manet did a series of dazzling portraits of women, about which Rewald has noted that while "Manet had to fight frequently against a dangerous tendency of faire folie, in his pastels he did not oppose this tendency." Hence his great success with his models. Pastels allowed him a freshness, a gay palette, a powdery texture more flattering to the face’ (F. Cachin in Manet (exhibition catalogue), Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris & The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1983, p. 493).

 

The first owner of the present work was the French industrialist Auguste Pellerin (1852-1929), one of the earliest collectors of Impressionist art. Pellerin assembled a magnificent collection of paintings, principally by Cézanne. This pastel was one of thirty-five works by Manet which featured in the Bernheim-Jeune exhibition of his collection in Paris in 1910. In the introduction to the exhibition catalogue, Pellerin was proclaimed as one of ‘a breed of collectors who do not speculate. If there are paintings, they are meant to be lived with. The true collector does not accumulate, he chooses.’