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Alfred Stevens
Belgian, 1823–1906
Spring
1877
Each of the figures in these paintings represents one of the four seasons. In Spring, a woman is accompanied by a dove and stands in a blossoming field; she seems demure in comparison to the figure in Summer. The latter has loosened her hair, shades her eyes flirtatiously with a fan, and holds a bundle of roses in full bloom. The woman in Fall, surrounded by withering leaves, appears pensive, while in Winter, the figure examines her reflection in the warmth of an elegant interior. By personifying the seasons as young women dressed in nineteenth-century fashions, Stevens modernized a traditional allegorical subject.
Image Caption
Alfred Stevens, Spring, 1877, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.868
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
46 11/16 x 23 9/16 in. (118.6 x 59.8 cm)
Object Number
1955.868
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
On View
Select Bibliography
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. Michael Justin Wentworth. James Tissot: Catalogue Raisonné of His Prints.. Exhibition dates: Minneapolis Institute, May 25-July 16, 1978; Clark Art Institute, Aug. 5-Sept. 17, 1978.. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts.. 1978. Kramer, Hilton. "Art: Clark Institute Marks Silver Jubliee." New York Times, June11, 1980. 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. Kathleen Adler.. Manet.. Oxford: Phaidon Press.. 1986.. Robert L. Herbert.. Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society.. New Haven: Yale University Press.. 1988.. 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. The Clark: Selections from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996. 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. 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
Commissioned by Arthur Warocqué, Brussels, possibly with Henry Le Roy et Fils as agent (1877–d. 1880); Madame Arthur Warocqué (Marie Warocqué-Orville), Brussels, his wife, by descent (1880–after 1900);¹ Raoul Warocqué, Brussels, her son, by descent (by 1907–before 1918); Léon Guinotte, Brussels;² [Galerie J. Allard, Paris, sold to Clark, 4 Mar. 1936]; Robert Sterling Clark (1936–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.
1. Madame Arthur Warocqué died in 1909, but her son Raoul, and not she, is listed as the lender to the Brussels–Antwerp 1907 exhibition, suggesting that the ownership of the paintings went to him before her death. The Allard invoice prepared for Clark does not include Madame Warocqué as an owner, but this may be an oversight.
2. From the Allard invoice.