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Alfred Stevens
Belgian, 1823–1906
Memories and Regrets
c. 1874
The woman in Stevens’s painting appears in her undergarments, with her gown, parasol, and fan piled nearby. The writing drawer of the dressing table is half-open and a letter is about to slip from her hand. Her downcast face and slumped posture suggest she is lost in reverie. Such carefully detailed scenes, accompanied by titles offering a tantalizing hint of narrative, were the artist’s specialty.
Image Caption
Alfred Stevens, Memories and Regrets, c. 1874, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.860
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
24 3/16 x 18 1/4 in. (61.4 x 46.4 cm)
Frame: 32 7/8 x 26 7/8 x 2 1/2 in. (83.5 x 68.3 x 6.4 cm)
Object Number
1955.860
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
On View
Select Bibliography
Mobile Museum of Art. Picturing French Style: Three Hundred Years of Art and Fashion. Sep. 6, 2002-Jan. 12, 2003. Paris: Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Quai Malaquais.. Exposition de l'Oeuvre d'Alfred Stevens.". Feb. 6-27, 1900.. Montesquiou, Comte Robert de. "Alfred Stevens." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 23.. 1900. Camille Lemonnier.. Alfred Stevens et son Oeuvre suivi des Impressions sur la Peinture par Alfred Stevens.. Brussels: G. van Oest.. 1906.. Brussels: La Société Royale des Beaux-Arts et l'Art Contemporain.. L'Oeuvre d'Alfred Stevens, cat. by Paul Lambotte.. April-May 1907.. François Monod.. Un Peintre des Femmes du Second Empire: Alfred Stevens.. Evreux: Imprimerie Chm. Herissey et fils.. 1909.. J.-L. Vaudoyer.. Ricard et Stevens, à propos d'un double centennaire.. Paris,. 1924.. François Boucher.. Alfred Stevens.. Paris: Editions Rieder.. 1930.. Gustav Vanzype.. Les Frères Stevens.. Brussels: Nouvelle Société d'Editions.. 1936.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.. Exhibit Thirteen: Alfred Stevens, Belgian, 1823-1906.. August 1960.. 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. 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. Coles, William A. Alfred Stevens. Sept. 10-Oct. 16, 1977; Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Nov. 20, 1977-Jan. 1, 1978; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Feb. 2-March 19, 1978. Ann Arbor (MI): University of Michigan Museum of Art. 1977. Isaacson, Joel. "Alfred Stevens at Ann Arbor and Elsewhere." The Burlington Magazine 120, no. 898 (January 1978): 42, 47–8 Brooks, John H. Highlights: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1981. Ludig, Sandra G. Between the Lines: Ladies and Letters at the Clark. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1982. 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. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. New York: The Frick Collection. Whistler and Montesquiou: The Butterfly and the Bat. Nov. 13, 1995-Jan. 28, 1996. (Cat. by Edgar Munhall.. Paris: Flammarion). Interventions: Griselda Pollock Looks at Alfred Stevens, Oct. 21, 2000-April 8, 2001. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2000. Published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name, shown at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. 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
William H. Stewart, Paris (until 1898, his sale, American Art Association, 3–4 Feb. 1898, no. 93, ill., as Remembrance and Regrets, sold to Knoedler); [Knoedler, New York and Paris, from 1898]; Gabriel de Yturri, Paris (by 1900–d. 1905, bequeathed to Montesquiou); Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac, Paris (1905–d. 1921); probably Robert Ochsé, Paris;¹ [Galerie Brame, Paris, until 1933, sold to Durand-Ruel]; [Durand-Ruel, New York, on deposit from Durand-Ruel, Paris, 8 May 1933, sold to Clark, 22 May 1933];² Robert Sterling Clark (1933–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.
1. Gustave Vanzype, Les frères Stevens, 1936, illustrates this painting and notates it as “à M. Ochsé, Paris.” There is no other source for this provenance. Objects belonging to Robert Ochsé appeared in Paris sales in 1928 and 1937; he is the likely owner.
2. According to the Durand-Ruel Archives, their New York branch bought this painting from Galerie Brame on 1 June 1933, later, that is, than the date Durand-Ruel New York sold it to Clark. The painting was, however, deposited with the New York branch by the Paris branch on 8 May, possibly on behalf of Galerie Brame, though the records are unclear on this point. See correspondence of 24 Apr. 2001 in the Clark’s curatorial file.