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Alfred Stevens
Belgian, 1823–1906
A Duchess (The Blue Dress)
c. 1866
A young woman, still wearing her cape and one glove, reflects on the contents of a hastily opened letter. Her rings indicate she is married and the calling cards on the table suggest she receives many visitors. Her sumptuous velvet dress and eclectic surroundings are the height of fashion, perhaps excessively so. The original title is sometimes interpreted colloquially—the French words faire la duchesse described “a woman who puts on airs.” The woman’s status, however, is ambiguous, inviting viewers to invent their own story.
Image Caption
Alfred Stevens, A Duchess (The Blue Dress), c. 1866, oil on panel. Clark Art Institute, 1955.865
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
12 3/8 x 10 1/4 in. (31.4 x 26 cm)
Frame: 19 1/4 x 17 3/16 x 2 in. (48.9 x 43.7 x 5.1 cm)
Object Number
1955.865
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
On View
Select Bibliography
La Commission Impériale. Exposition Universelle de 1867 à Paris: Catalogue Général. Exhibition catalogue. 1re Livraison, vres d'Art. Paris: E. Dentu, Libraire-Éditeur, 1867. Marius Chaumelin.. "La peinture à l'Exposition Universelle de 1867," in L'Art Contemporain.. Paris: Librairie Renouard.. 1873.. M. Pierre Larousse.. Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIXe Siècle, vol. 14.. Paris: Administration du Grand Dictionnaire Universel.. 1875.. Camille Lemonnier.. Alfred Stevens et son Oeuvre suivi des Impressions sur la Peinture par Alfred Stevens.. Brussels: G. van Oest.. 1906.. François Boucher.. Alfred Stevens.. Paris: Editions Rieder.. 1930.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.. Exhibit Thirteen: Alfred Stevens, Belgian, 1823-1906.. August 1960.. Peter Mitchell.. "The Success of Alfred Stevens at the Exposition Universelle of 1867.". The Connoisseur, 173:698.. (April 1970).. Mark Roskill.. Van Gogh, Gauguin, and the Impressionist Circle.. London: Thames & Hudson.. 1970.. 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. New York: Columbia University Dept. of Art History & Archaeology. From Realism to Symbolism: Whistler and His World. Wildenstein & Co., New York, March 4-April 3, 1971; Philadelphia Museum of Art, April 15-May 23, 1971. 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. Cunningham, Charles C., et al. The Elegant Academics: Chroniclers of 19th-Century Parisian Life. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: The Clark, 1974. Cleveland Museum of Art.. Japonisme: Japanese Influence on French Art, 1854-1910. July 9-Aug. 31, 1975; Rutgers University Art Gallery, Oct. 4-Nov. 16, 1975; Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Dec. 10, 1975-Jan. 26, 1976. Cat. by Gabriel Weisberg et al. Tadaharu Ikegami.. Art of the World, vol. 14.. Tokyo: Zauho Press.. 1978.. Feeney, Maura. A La Mode: Women's Fashions in French Art, 1850-1900. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1982. 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. John House.. Pierre-Auguste Renoir: La Promenade.. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.. 1997.. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.. Gloria Victis! Victors and Vanquished in French Art, 1848-1910.. May 29-October 15, 2000.. 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. Flemming Friborg (editor).. Gloria Victis!. Copenhagen: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.. 2001.. Allen, Brian T. "Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute." American Art Review: Special edition, The Western Massachusetts Art Trail XVI, no. 3 (2004): 162-169. Søndergaard, Sidsel Maria, ed. Women in Impressionism: From Mythical Feminine to Modern Woman. Exhibition catalogue. Milan and Copenhagen: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek with Skira Editore, 2006. 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
Possibly Paran Stevens, New York (d. 1872); Mrs. Paran Stevens (Marietta Reed), New York, his wife (by 1879–d. 1895); Lady Mary Paget (Mary Fiske Stevens), London, her daughter, by descent (1895–d. 1919); [Knoedler, London, sold to Clark, 12 Mar. 1920]; Robert Sterling Clark (1920–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.