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Pierre-Auguste Renoir
French, 1841–1919
Portrait of a Young Woman (L'Ingenue)
c. 1874
A fashionably dressed woman stands before an undefined background of blue and green tones that suggests the outdoors. Her gestures and expression are as open to interpretation as the setting. Although her sideways glance seems to hint at something happening beyond the frame, Renoir may have simply intended to highlight the woman’s youthful features and fresh complexion.

Image Caption

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Portrait of a Young Woman (L'Ingenue), c. 1874, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.606
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
21 15/16 x 18 1/4 in. (55.7 x 46.4 cm) Frame: 31 5/8 × 28 1/8 × 4 1/4 in. (80.3 × 71.4 × 10.8 cm)
Object Number
1955.606
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
On View

Select Bibliography

Galerie Manzi-Joyant. Exposition d'Art Modern. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Galerie Manzi-Joyant, 1912.

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.. Exhibit Six: Impressionist Paintings.. Opened Sept. 18, 1956.. . "Renoirs in the Clark Collection.. 139:559.. The Connoisseur.. (March 1957).. 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. Polley, Robert L., ed. Great Art Treasures in America's Smaller Museums. Text by Harold E. Haydon. New York: Putnam's, 1967. . Four Masters of Impressionism. Oct. 24-Nov. 30, 1968. Acquavella Galleries, New York. 1968.. 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. François Daulte.. Auguste Renoir, Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint.. Paris: Durand-Ruel.. 1971.. 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. 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.. Renoir.. London: John Calmann & King.. 1987.. Raffaele de Grada.. Renoir.. Milan: Mondadori.. 1989.. Raffaele de Grada.. Renoir.. New York: Arch Cape Press.. 1989.. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. 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 Néret, Gilles. Renoir: Painter of Happiness 18411919. Cologne: Taschen GmbH, 2001. 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. 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.

Provenance

Eugène Murer, Paris (by 1887, d. 1906); Georges Viau, Paris (until 1907, his sale, Durand-Ruel, Paris, 4 March 1907, no. 61, ill., sold to Bernheim-Jeune); [Bernheim-Jeune, Paris]; Jacob Goldschmidt, Berlin; Alphonse Kann, Paris (by 1911–until at least 1926); [Paul Rosenberg, Paris];¹ J. Horace Harding, New York (d. 1929); Charles B. Harding, New York, his son, by descent (1929–until at least 1937); [Carroll Carstairs, New York, sold to Clark, 28 Nov. 1940]; Robert Sterling Clark (1940–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. 1. The dates of ownership by Paul Rosenberg are uncertain. François Daulte, Auguste Renoir, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, 1971 (vol. 1, no. 225) lists Rosenberg before Goldschmidt, but records in the Rosenberg Archives suggest that the painting was purchased after 1917, thus presumably sometime between 1926 and 1929, after Kann’s ownership. An inventory card in the Archives also indicates that this painting was in the “collection Abdy,” though no further evidence of ownership by a member of the Abdy family has been found. See The Paul Rosenberg Archives, a gift of Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York.