Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret

Exhibited by Galerie Ary Jan

Material Oil on canvas signed, situated and dated "Paris 1883" lower right

Dimensions 115 x 88 cm

Place of Creation Paris

Status Vetted

About the Work

Referred to as "The Duet", this painting is a rediscovery of Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret's early work. Rejecting the academic and traditional subjects favoured by his fellow students at the École des Beaux-Arts, the artist acquired a reputation in the late 1870s and early 1880s as a painter of Parisian life. Far more than an assemblage of refined furniture and well-dressed models, paintings like Le Duo invited the viewer to decode entire narratives constructed from the artist's keen eye for detail and characteristic wit.

The Duet admirably fulfills what Dagnan-Bouveret aspired to do: to show well-appointed interiors that were beautifully furnished for social activities such as a music recital, that both reflected refinement and were meaningful.

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Provenance

Goupil & Cie, Paris, no. 16879 (acquired directly from the artist, December 1883)
Knoedler & Co., New York, no. 4555 (acquired from the above, January 1884)
George Ingraham Seney, Brooklyn, New York (acquired from the above in February 1884 and sold, his sale, American Art Association, New York, March 31, 1885, lot 88)
Thomas E. Waggaman, Washington, D.C. (and sold, American Art Association, New York, January 25, 1905, lot 80, illustrated, as A Duet in the Studio)
J. Schmitt (acquired at the above sale)
Private Collection, France

Literature

"Artistic Costumes in the late Seney Collection," Demorest's Monthly Magazine, New York, June 1885, p. 528
L.E. Van Zandt, "The Waggaman Collection," The Art Interchange: An Illustrated Guide for Art Amateurs and Students, with Hints on Artistic Decoration, New York, June 1894, vol. XXXII, no. 6, p. 160
"The Waggaman Art Galleries: A Rare Collection In Danger of Dispersion," The Booklovers Magazine, Philadelphia, November 1904, vol IV, no. 5, p. 618 (as A Duet in the Studio)