Louis Hourticq. "E. Degas." Art et Décoration 32 (July–December 1912), pp. 109–10, comments on the reversal of the conventional hierarchy of portraiture, with the figure relegated to the status of an accessory, as in Far Eastern art.
P.-A Lemoisne. Degas. Paris, 1912, pp. 32–34, pl. IX, calls it "La Femme aux chrysanthèmes" and identifies the sitter as Mme Hertel; describes it as one of Degas's first compositions to cut off the figure along the side in order to achieve its momentary quality.
Julius Meier-Graefe. Entwicklungsgeschichte der Modernen Kunst. 2, 2nd ed. Munich, 1915, p. 278.
Paul Jamot. "Degas (1834–1917)." Gazette des beaux-arts, 4th ser., 14 (April–June 1918), pp. 152–53, 156–57, ill., calls it the first example of the off-center composition that would later characterize Degas's pictures, and which contemporary viewers found disconcerting; compares it to Van Dyck's "Self-portrait with Sunflower" (Duke of Westminster).
Paul Lafond. Degas. 2, Paris, 1919, p. 11, calls it "Portrait de Mme Hertel" and erroneously locates it in the Louvre; states that it is one of Degas's first pictures showing the influence of Japanese prints.
Julius Meier-Graefe. Degas. Munich, 1920, pp. 11–12 [English ed., 1923, p. 25], finds the influence of Manet in the flowers, and calls the portrait "a dry piece of work, thin and feeble. . . . ".
American Art News 19 (February 26, 1921), p. 1, ill., notes that it has recently been sold by Durand-Ruel to an American collector.
Royal Cortissoz. "Modern France and Renaissance Italy: A Masterpiece by Degas and a Sienese Ceiling." New York Tribune (January 30, 1921), p. 7, ill., notes that this picture has never been exhibited before and is now at the Durand-Ruel gallery, New York, having been purchased by the gallery "only the other day".
Paul Jamot. "Deux tableaux de Degas acquis par les Musées nationaux: l'Orchestre et le portrait de Mademoiselle Dihau." Le Figaro artistique (January 3, 1924), p. 4.
Paul Jamot. Degas. Paris, 1924, pp. 23, 47–48, 53–54, 90–91, 133, pl. 11, comments that this composition surprised and scandalized Degas's contemporaries.
Ambroise Vollard. Degas (1834–1917). Paris, 1924, ill. opp. p. 32, as "Femme et fleurs".
Louis Réau in Histoire de l'art depuis les premiers temps chrétiens jusqu'à nos jours. 8, part 2, Paris, 1926, p. 587.
Henri Focillon. La Peinture aux XIXe et XXe siècles: Du réalisme à nos jours. Paris, 1928, p. 182.
"Havemeyer Collection at Metropolitan Museum: Havemeyers Paid Small Sums for Masterpieces." Art News 28 (March 15, 1930), p. 43.
"The H. O. Havemeyer Collection." Parnassus 2 (March 1930), p. 7.
Harry B. Wehle. "The Exhibition of the H. O. Havemeyer Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 25 (March 1930), p. 55.
Germain Bazin. "Degas et l'objectif." L'Amour de l'art 12 (July 1931), pp. 303–4, fig. 94, compares the decentralized composition to modern photography and finds a precedent in Millet's pastel "Bouquet of Daisies" (Henri Rouart sale, no. 209; now Musée d'Orsay, Paris).
H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, pp. 108–9, ill., as "Femme aux chrysanthèmes"; identifies the sitter as Mme Hertel.
Louise Burroughs. "Degas in the Havemeyer Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (May 1932), pp. 143–45, ill., compares this picture with its preparatory drawing (Fogg Art Museum), observing that the sitter's personality and character are revealed only in the painting.
Agnes Mongan. "Portrait Studies by Degas in American Collections." Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum 1 (May 1932), p. 65, remarks that the sitter in this picture and its preparatory drawing (Fogg) more closely resembles Mlle Hélène Hertel than her mother, Mme Hertel, based on their portrait drawings (1st Degas sale, no. 313; 3rd Degas sale, no. 159a; both Musée du Louvre, Paris); agrees with the suggestion that Degas was influenced by Millet's pastel [see Ref. Bazin 1931].
Degas, 1834–1917. Exh. cat., Pennsylvania Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1936, pp. 17–18, no. 8, ill. p. 60, identifies the sitter as Mme Hertel.
Jacqueline Bouchot-Saupique and Marie Delaroche-Vernet. Degas. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, [1937], pp. 17–18, no. 6, pl. 6, identify the sitter as Mme Hertel.
Camille Mauclair. Degas. London, [1937], p. 166, colorpl. 89, as "Woman and Chrysanthemums (Portrait of Madame Hertel)".
Virginia Nirdlinger. "Notes on Degas." Parnassus 9 (March 1937), p. 19, calls it a not entirely successful, tentative first attempt at an asymetrical composition.
Ella S. Siple. "Notable Mid-Winter Exhibitions in New York and Philadelphia." Burlington Magazine 70 (February 1937), p. 92.
Agnes Mongan and Paul J. Sachs. Drawings in the Fogg Museum of Art. Cambridge, Mass., 1940, vol. 1, p. 359, under no. 667, comment that Degas may have borrowed the composition from the Millet pastel (Orsay).
John Rewald. Edgar Degas. Mulhouse, France, [194_?], fig. 3, erroneously dates it 1863.
Preface by Edward Alden Jewell in French Impressionists and Their Contemporaries Represented in American Collections. New York, 1944, ill. p. 153 (color).
Marguerite Rebatet. Degas. Paris, 1944, p. 31, pl. 14.
Jacques Lassaigne. Edgar Degas. Paris, 1945, ill. p. 26 (color).
Camille Mauclair. Edgar Degas. New York, 1945, unpaginated, ill. (color).
Denis Rouart. Degas à la recherche de sa technique. Paris, 1945, pp. 13–15, 70 n. 24 [English ed., 1988, pp. 27, 30, 33, ill. (color)], asserts that the medium is "peinture à l'essence" on paper.
P[aul]. A[ndré]. Lemoisne. Degas et son œuvre. [reprint 1984]. Paris, [1946–49], vol. 1, pp. 55–56, 239, ill. opp. p. 56; vol. 2, pp. 62–63, no. 125, ill., as "La femme aux chrysanthèmes. (Mme Hertel)".
John Rewald. "The Realism of Degas." Magazine of Art 39 (January 1946), p. 13, calls it "Portrait of Mme Hertel" and mentions the abandoned glove on the table as an example of Degas's 1859 resolution to portray objects in relation to the lives of their owners.
Germain Bazin. L'époque impressionniste. Paris, 1947, p. 67.
Louise Burroughs. "Notes." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 6 (March 1948), inside front cover, ill. (inside front cover and color detail on front cover), discusses it in relation to the drawing (Fogg).
Lillian Browse. Degas Dancers. New York, [1949], p. 20.
Jean Cassou. Les Impressionnistes et leur époque. Paris, 1953, p. 28, no. 42, ill.
François Fosca. Degas. Geneva, 1954, pp. 28–29, ill. (color), asserts that photographs have been found that Degas used in composing this picture.
Howard Fussiner. "Organic Integration in Cézanne's Painting." College Art Journal 15 (Summer 1956), pp. 310–11, fig. 7, discusses its combination of still life and portrait, commenting that "it is only accidentally a unit in itself (by such a miracle of mastery as even Degas rarely again equalled), and always suggesting that more of the world exists outside of the frame".
Pierre Cabanne. Edgar Degas. Paris, [1957], pp. 23, 29, 96, 106, no. 22, pl. 22 [English ed., 1958], states that the photographs Degas used for this portrait were found in London [in a December 10, 1958 letter to Ronald Davey, Cabanne reports that he has no further information regarding these photographs; see departmental archive file]; calls it the first decentralized composition in his oeuvre.
John Canaday. "Four Women." Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 52, no. 253 (1957), pp. 46–49, ill., comments that in this picture Degas violates "all the conventions of portrait composition".
Germain Bazin. French Impressionists in the Louvre. New York, 1958, p. 126.
Iris Elles Universität Zürich. Das Stilleben in der französischen Malerei des 19. Jahrhunderts. Menziken, 1958, pp. 75–76, 129 n. 2.
Jakob Rosenberg. Great Draughtsmen from Pisanello to Picasso. Cambridge, Mass., 1959, p. 109, remarks that this painting's composition was influenced by the unexpected angles of vision in Japanese woodcuts.
Vlastimil Fiala. Edgar Degas. Prague, 1961, pl. 12.
Roseline Bacou. Letter to Margaretta Salinger. August 24, 1962, finds no resemblance between the drawing of Mme Hertel in the Louvre and the sitter in this picture.
Jean Sutherland Boggs. Portraits by Degas. Berkeley, 1962, pp. 31–32, 37, 41, 59, 92 n. 52, p. 119, pl. 44, identifies the sitter as Mme Hertel; suggests the influence of Courbet's "The Trellis" (1862; Toledo Museum of Art) or Millet's "Girl with Flowers (Bouquet of Daisies)" (Orsay).
Phoebe Pool. Degas. London, 1963, p. 39, colorpl. 10, observes the influence of Delacroix, Moreau, and Venetian painting in the colors of the flowers, which "helped to emancipate [Degas] from the school of Ingres".
Carla Gottlieb. "The Role of the Window in the Art of Matisse." Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 22 (Summer 1964), p. 418, suggests that Matisse's compositions of figures "pushed to one side" were influenced by this picture.
Agnes Mongan. Memorial Exhibition: Works of Art from the Collection of Paul J. Sachs (1878–1965). Exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum. Cambridge, Mass., 1965, unpaginated, under no. 57.
Boris Alekseevich Zernov. Degas 1834–1917. 1965, pp. 10–11, pl. 8.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. "XIX–XX Centuries." French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 3, New York, 1967, pp. 57–60, ill. p. 59 and on cover (color detail), as "A Woman with Chrysanthemums"; observe that it is difficult to explain why the sitter has been identified as Mme Hertel, especially since she does not resemble the figure in the Louvre drawing labelled Mme Hertel by Degas (3rd Degas sale, no. 159) [see Ref. Boggs 1962, who identifies both Louvre drawings as portraits of Mlle Hélène Hertel]; note that the Millet pastel (Orsay) was executed after this picture; cite Ronald Pickvance's suggestion that Degas signed this picture some time after it was finished and state that a second signature and partial date of 1858 are visible in the lower left corner.
Margaretta M. Salinger. "Windows Open to Nature." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (Summer 1968), unpaginated, ill. (overall and color detail).
Aaron Scharf. Art and Photography. Baltimore, 1969, pp. 144, 301, fig. 126, cites Cabanne's [Ref. 1957] claim that this composition is based on a photograph.
Thomas P. F. Hoving. "Director's Choice." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 28 (January 1970), p. [226], ill., states that x-rays show that Degas painted the still life first and added the woman later.
Fiorella Minervino in L'opera completa di Degas. Milan, 1970, p. 95, no. 210, ill. p. 95 and colorpl. 6, as "Woman with Chrysanthemums (Mme Hertel [?])".
Introduction by Kenneth Clark in Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1970, p. 314, no. 375, ill. pp. 70 (color) and 314, notes that the sitter is unknown.
Ronald Pickvance. "Degas as a Photographer." Lithopinion 5 (Spring 1970), pp. 74, 79, ill., remarks that Degas used photography for hints and clues in his painting and that this picture has a "casual, snapshot quality"; notes that no photograph has been found for the pose of the figure, and that it was based instead on the drawing from life (Fogg).
Theodore Reff in From Realism to Symbolism: Whistler and His World. Exh. cat., Wildenstein. New York, 1971, p. 28.
Theodore Reff. "The Technical Aspects of Degas's Art." Metropolitan Museum Journal 4 (1971), p. 142, notes that some of Degas's most original pictures, including this one, are painted in a conventional oil technique.
John Rewald. Letter to Margaretta Salinger. May 9, 1971, states that according to the Goupil files, this picture was purchased from Degas by Theo van Gogh for Goupil.
Wendy Baron. Sickert. London, 1973, p. 87, asserts that Walter Richard Sickert's "Nude behind Flowers" and Spencer Gore's "Self-portrait" may have been inspired by this picture.
John Rewald. "Théo van Gogh, Goupil, and the Impressionists." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 81 (January 1973), pp. 8, 11, 104–5, fig. 5, notes that this picture was the first work by Degas recorded in the Goupil register, and was purchased outright from the artist in July 1887 but not sold until February 1889; surmises that Theo van Gogh bought it "in order to inveigle the painter to do business with him"; reprints its entry in the ledger as "Femme accoudée près d'un pot de fleurs".
John Rewald. "The Impressionist Brush." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 32, no. 3 (1973/1974), pp. 4, 8–9, no. 3, ill. (overall and color detail), dates it 1858–65; compares the treatment of the flowers to Delacroix.
Charles S. Moffett in Impressionism: A Centenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1974, pp. 70–75, no. 10, ill. (color, overall and detail) [French ed., "Centenaire de l'impressionnisme," Éditions des musées nationaux, Paris, 1974], dates it probably 1865; based on x-rays and examination of the paint surface, proposes that it was originally a flower painting, possibly begun in 1858, and that the portrait was added in 1865; comments that the sitter is unknown.
Erich Steingräber. "'La repasseuse': Zur frühesten Version des Themas von Edgar Degas." Pantheon 32 (January–March 1974), p. 52, mentions it as an early example of the Japanese influence in Degas's pictures.
Bernard Dorival in "Ukiyo-e and European Painting." Dialogue in Art: Japan and the West. New York, 1976, p. 34 n. 4, p. 45, fig. 21 (color), observes that this picture and Millet's "Bouquet of Daisies" (which he dates about 1874; Orsay) share the influence of Japanese prints, but considers it unlikely that Millet copied the Degas.
Victor Koshkin-Youritzin. "The Irony of Degas." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 87 (January 1976), pp. 39–40 nn. 23–24, fig. 4, finds it ironic that this picture's initially pleasing depiction of a daydreaming woman beside beautiful flowers conveys "emptiness, futility, and lost hope" upon closer inspection of her unhappy expression and the "strangely overripe" bouquet.
Theodore Reff. Degas, The Artist's Mind. [New York], 1976, pp. 28, 48–49, 62–63, 65, 272, 306 n. 41, p. 310 n. 76, fig. 36 (color), based on recent laboratory examinations [see Ref. Moffett 1974], proposes that the still life was painted in 1858, probably influenced by Italian Baroque flower paintings, and then repainted in 1865 in the more vivid palette of Delacroix; sees the influence of Ingres in the figure.
"Other Museum News and Comments." Art Journal 36 (Summer 1977), p. 346.
Thomas B. Hess. "Communicating Degas." New York Magazine (March 28, 1977), p. 74.
Theodore Reff. "Degas: A Master among Masters." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 34 (Spring 1977), p. [6], fig. 10 (color).
Frank Whitford. Japanese Prints and Western Painters. New York, 1977, p. 150, colorpl. 17, argues that the asymmetrical composition and unusual points of view are borrowed from Japanese art.
Anne Distel in De Renoir à Matisse: 22 chefs-d'œuvre des musées soviétiques et français. Exh. cat., Grand-Palais. Paris, 1978, p. 30, under no. 11, compares it to Gauguin's "Te Tiare Farani–les fleurs de France" (1891; Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow).
Maurice Sérullaz in Phaidon Encyclopedia of Impressionism. Oxford, 1978, p. 87.
Hélène Toussaint. Gustave Courbet, 1819–1877. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. [London], 1978, p. 144, under no. 67 [French ed., 1977, p. 161, under no. 70], remarks that Degas may have referred to Courbet's "The Trellis" (Toledo Museum of Art) when he added the figure, whom he identifies as Mme Hertel, to his painting of a bouquet of flowers.
Ian Dunlop. Degas. New York, 1979, pp. 30, 33, 69, 72, 93, 229 n. 51, colorpl. 59, suggests that Degas may have based this picture on a carte-de-visite photograph; notes that it is the first of a series of portraits of women beyond Degas's immediate family circle "and as such it indicates his growing awareness of life and subjects outside his home and his studio".
Joel Isaacson. The Crisis of Impressionism: 1878–1882. Exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art. [Ann Arbor, Mich.], 1979, p. 196, compares the flowers in this picture to a still life of flowers by Charles Victor Tillot (mid-1870s; Raydon Gallery, New York).
Charles S. Moffett. Degas: Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1979, p. 6, ill. on cover (color) and colorpls. 7 and 8 (overall and detail), asserts that the flowers were painted in 1858 and the figure added in 1865; suggests that the setting is the family home of Berthe Morisot, based on the similarity to the background in Degas's portrait of Morisot's sister (MMA 29.100.45); remarks that although the sitter is unknown, the flowers "comment, adjectivally or metaphorically, on her character . . . . the picture is convincing as a realist statement, the record of an actual encounter with a person, rather than a composed, formal portrait".
Klaus Berger. Japonismus in der westlichen Malerei: 1860–1920. Munich, 1980, pp. 55, 151, 360, fig. 34, identifies the sitter as Mme Hertel.
T[heodore]. R[eff]. in Gabriel P. Weisberg. The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing, 1830–1900. Exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1980, pp. 174–75 n. 2, under no. 149, remarks that the woman's "tense, distracted mood" is evoked by the "brilliant, almost overwhelming bouquet".
Kirk Varnedoe. "The Artifice of Candor: Impressionism and Photography Reconsidered." Art in America 68 (January 1980), p. 78 n. 18, asserts that the "snapshot" quality of the composition to which Scharf [Ref. 1969] refers is not related to the actual high-speed exposure photographs of the 1860s.
Eugénie de Keyser. Degas: Réalité et métaphore. Louvain-la-Neuve, 1981, pp. 52, 107, identifies the sitter as Mme Hertel.
Everett Fahy. Metropolitan Flowers. New York, 1982, pp. 26–27, ill. (color), dates it 1858 and 1865; notes that the traditional title, "A Woman with Chrysanthemums," is misleading, as most of the bouquet consists of asters, with possibly some coreopsis and chrysanthemums.
Keith Roberts. Degas. rev., enl. ed. [1st ed., 1976]. Oxford, 1982, unpaginated, colorpl. 5.
Françoise Cachin in Manet, 1832–1883. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983, p. 208, under no. 77 [French ed., Paris, 1983].
Douglas Druick and Peter Zegers in Edgar Degas: The Painter as Printmaker. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1984, p. xxv.
Eugenia Parry Janis in Degas: Form and Space. Exh. cat., Centre Culturel du Marais. Paris, 1984, pp. 458, 460, 466, 484 n. 29, identifies the sitter as Hélène Hertel; rejects Varnedoe's [Ref. 1980] argument against the influence of photography in nineteenth-century painting, asserting that the composition of this picture is similar to those found in contemporary photography "where intended subject matter is subverted by calculated 'accidents' situated along the margins which infuse the scene with their own dynamic".
Roy McMullen. Degas: His Life, Times, and Work. Boston, 1984, pp. 119–20, 127, 132, 236, ill., identifies the sitter as Mme Hertel; doubts that this picture was influenced by Van Dyck's "Self-portrait with Sunflower" (Collection Duke of Westminster) or Courbet's "The Trellis" (Toledo) and remarks that Millet's "Bouquet of Daisies" (Orsay) was painted four years after the Degas.
Ronald Pickvance. Van Gogh in Arles. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1984, p. 42, states that this painting was included in the consignment of ten that Theo van Gogh sent to Tersteeg in the Hague on April 2, 1888, that the pictures arrived in the Hague on April 6, and that they were returned to Paris unsold on June 9.
Charles F. Stuckey in Degas: Form and Space. Exh. cat., Centre Culturel du Marais. Paris, 1984, pp. 16, 21, 55, figs. 62, 63 (color, detail and overall), asserts that it was begun in 1858 and was later altered to incorporate elements from Courbet's "The Trellis" (Toledo).
Götz Adriani. Degas: Pastels, Oil Sketches, Drawings. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Tübingen. New York, 1985, p. 347, under no. 46, finds that the sitter in this picture hardly resembles the one in the Louvre's drawing inscribed "Me Hertel"; considers the drawing to be a portrait of her daughter, Mlle Hélène Hertel.
Richard Kendall in Degas, 1834–1984. Manchester, 1985, pp. 20–21, fig. 25, observes "the debate between colour and line" in the Delacroix-inspired flowers and Ingres-inspired figure, noting that the later addition of the figure introduced the cultural context of nineteenth-century France; comments that in this picture "colour appears to represent expression, improvisation and licence, while drawing stands for seriousness, for probity and for Degas's commitment to subject-matter".
Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 52–53, 55, 250, ill. (color).
Melissa McQuillan. Impressionist Portraits. London, 1986, pp. 40–41, ill. (color), calls it "Woman with Chrysanthemums" and dates it 1858–65; tentatively identifies the sitter as Mme. Hertel.
Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 240, 257, colorpl. 162, asserts that Mrs. Havemeyer preferred such "penetrating studies of personality and mood . . . . above all else".
Sjraar van Heutgen et al. in Franse meesters uit het Metropolitan Museum of Art: Realisten en Impressionisten. Exh. cat., Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1987, p. 25, fig. 12.
Gary Tinterow et al. "Modern Europe." The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 8, New York, 1987, p. 20, colorpl. 7, date it 1858 and 1865, noting that it "represents an accumulation of ideas and observations over a long period".
Jean Sutherland Boggs in Degas. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. New York, 1988, p. 506.
Jack Flam. "The Master on View at New Met Galleries." Wall Street Journal (December 27, 1988), p. ?.
Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge. Degas. New York, 1988, p. 274, ill. p. 101 (color).
Robert L. Herbert. Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society. New Haven, 1988, pp. 57, 72, colorpl. 59, describes it as conveying a disturbing sense of loneliness.
Horst Keller. Edgar Degas. Munich, 1988, pp. 66, 71, 174, colorpl. 62.
Henri Loyrette in Degas. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. New York, 1988, pp. 55, 112, 114–17, 121, 157, 168, 182, no. 60, ill. (color), as "Woman Leaning near a Vase of Flowers (Mme Paul Valpinçon?)"; asserts that a recent x-ray proves the erased date does not read "1858" but is also "1865" and that the bouquet is not chrysanthemums, but a variety of end-of-summer flowers, which would date the painting to August-September 1865; states that the sitter is clearly not Mme Hertel, suggesting instead that she is Mme Paul Valpinçon based on the time of year, rural setting, the sitter's apparent age, and her resemblance to a small sketch inscribed "Mme Paul" (location unknown).
Charles F. Stuckey in The Art of Paul Gauguin. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1988, p. 220, ill.
Richard Thomson. "The Degas Exhibition at the Grand Palais." Burlington Magazine 130 (April 1988), p. 297, agrees with Loyrette's [Ref. 1988] identification of the sitter as the wife of Paul Valpinçon.
Gary Tinterow in Degas. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. New York, 1988, pp. 387, 400.
Henri Loyrette. "Degas entre Gustave Moreau et Duranty. Notes sur les portraits 1859–1876." Revue de l'art no. 86 (1989), pp. 19, 21, fig. 10, notes that "Femme accoudée près d'un vase de fleurs" is close to the title given to this picture when it was acquired by Theo van Gogh in 1887.
Norma Broude. "A World of Light: France and the International Impressionist Movement, 1860–1920." World Impressionism: The International Movement, 1860–1920. New York, 1990, p. 31, colorpl. 28, as "Woman with Vase of Flowers (Mme Paul Valpinçon?)"; interprets the past misidentification of the flowers as chrysanthemums, the imperial flower of Japan, as an acknowledgment of the Japanese influence on the composition.
Geneviève Lacambre. "Le Temps du Salon." L'Art du XIXe siècle, 1850–1905. Paris, 1990, p. 35, ill. on contents page (color detail) and fig. 23 (color), notes that the sitter may be Mme Valpinçon; doubts the influence of Courbet's "The Trellis" (Toledo), since Degas may not have seen it by the time he painted this picture.
Horst Uhr. "Impressionism in Austria and Germany." World Impressionism: The International Movement, 1860–1920. New York, 1990, p. 369, calls it "A Woman with Chrysanthemums" and compares its asymmetrical composition to Lovis Corinth's "Wilhelmine with Flowers" (1920; Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel).
Patrick Bade. Degas. London, 1991, p. 37, remarks that its composition may have been based on a photograph.
Henri Loyrette. Degas. Paris, 1991, pp. 197, 216, 263, 300, 474, 719 n. 39, p. 727 n. 47, ill., identifies the sitter as Mme Paul (Marguerite-Claire) Valpinçon.
Joseph J. Rishel in Masterpieces of Impressionism & Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1991, p. 98, fig. 151.
Margaret Fitzgerald Farr. "Impressionist Portraiture: A Study in Context and Meaning." PhD diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1992, p. 67 n. 96, pp. 69–71, p. 255 n. 41, pl. 18, calls it "Woman Leaning near a Vase of Flowers" and "A Woman with Chrysanthemums".
Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1930, repr. 1961]. New York, 1993, pp. 257, 337 n. 376.
Chuji Ikegami. "Period of Impressionism." New History of World Art. 22, Tokyo, 1993, p. 377, ill. p. 377 and colorpl. 45.
Henri Loyrette. Degas: The Man and His Art. New York, 1993, pp. 106–7, ill. (color), notes that Durand-Ruel's monopoly on the Degas market ended when Degas consigned this picture to Theo van Gogh, for Galerie Boussod et Valadon, in 1887.
Susan Alyson Stein in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 278.
Gary Tinterow in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 36, colorpl. 39, states that it was Mrs. Havemeyer's last important purchase.
Gretchen Wold in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 325, no. A196, ill. p. 326.
Tobia Bezzola in Degas Portraits. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. London, 1994, p. 209, accepts the identification of the sitter as Mme Valpinçon.
Jean Sutherland Boggs in Degas Portraits. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. London, 1994, pp. 19, 89, 95, ill. p. 88, calls it "Woman with Chrysanthemums".
Henri Loyrette in Origins of Impressionism. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, pp. 156, 224–25, 296, 359, 368, 370–71, 405, no. 57, fig. 281 (color) and ill. p. 370 [French ed., Paris, 1994, pp. 156, 224–25, 296, 357, 367, 369–70, 402, no. 57, fig. 281 (color) and ill. p. 369], remarks that Degas imitated Courbet's "The Trellis" (Toledo), but that in this picture the flowers serve as an attribute of the woman's social status; comments that "Mme Valpinçon's bouquet is her work and her prerogative; she has engaged in the bucolic bourgeois ritual of cutting late-summer flowers and arranging them in a vase"; asserts that Degas would have called it a "painting" instead of a "portrait"; identifies the flowers as china asters, gillyflowers, centauries, gaillardias, and dahlias
.
Emil Maurer in Degas Portraits. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. London, 1994, pp. 110–11, 117 n. 51, calls it "a portrait seen out of the corner of the eye".
Gary Tinterow in Gary Tinterow and Henri Loyrette. Origins of Impressionism. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, p. 338 [French ed. "Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869," Paris, 1994, p. 337].
Albert Kostenevich. Hidden Treasures Revealed: Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Exh. cat.New York, 1995, p. 259, calls it "Woman with Chrysanthemums"; compares it to Vuillard's "Young Woman in a Room" (about 1892–93; State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), noting that Vuillard had probably seen this picture.
Julian Barnes. "The Artist as Voyeur." Modern Painters 9 (Autumn 1996), pp. 24–25, ill. (color).
Françoise Cachin in The Private Collection of Edgar Degas. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997, pp. 231–33, n. 37, fig. 202, cites the influence of Degas, and our painting in particular, on the first important portraits that Gauguin began to paint in 1888; mentions that our picture was being stored at Theo van Gogh's home in 1887 and 1888 when Gauguin paid frequent visits there during his trips to Paris.
Linda Nochlin in Colin B. Bailey. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. New Haven, 1997, pp. 59–60.
Gary Tinterow in La collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 1997, pp. 22, 63, 105, no. 30, ill. p. 65 (color).
Eugenia Parry in Malcolm Daniel. Edgar Degas, Photographer. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1998, pp. 56, 62, 72 n. 8, fig. 41, cites the compelling pose and glance of the sitter as an early example of calculated diversion, a device later used by photographers.
Dianne W. Pitman. Bazille: Purity, Pose, and Painting in the 1860s. University Park, 1998, pp. 181, 205, fig. 120.
Richard Thomson in Theo van Gogh: Marchand de tableaux, collectionneur, frère de Vincent. Exh. cat., Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Paris, 1999, pp. 111, 203 n. 136, p. 211, no. 16, ill. pp. 58–59 (color detail), fig. 104 (color), records its title as "Femme accoudée" when purchased by Theo van Gogh in 1887.
Richard Thomson. "Theo van Gogh: The Man and the Market." Van Gogh Bulletin 14, no. 2 (1999), pp. 14–15, ill. (color), cites it as the first painting that Degas sold to Theo van Gogh in order to build his own art collection.
Ann Dumas in Degas and America: The Early Collectors. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 2000, pp. 14, 28.
Frances Fowle in Degas and America: The Early Collectors. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 2000, p. 117.
Claire I. R. O'Mahony in Degas and America: The Early Collectors. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 2000, pp. 118–19, 189, no. 18, ill. (color).
Rebecca A. Rabinow in Degas and America: The Early Collectors. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 2000, p. 44, ill. p. 34 (color detail).
Phaedra Siebert in Degas and America: The Early Collectors. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 2000, p. 250.
Jennifer A. Greenhill in Eliza E. Rathbone and George T. M. Shackelford. Impressionist Still Life. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection, Washington. New York, 2001, pp. 205–6, calls it Degas's earliest "woman and flowers" picture and notes that its sale price of Fr 4,000 to Theo van Gogh was the second largest amount Degas had ever been paid for his work.
Alexandra Ames Lawrence in Eliza E. Rathbone and George T. M. Shackelford. Impressionist Still Life. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection, Washington. New York, 2001, p. 150.
George T. M. Shackelford in Eliza E. Rathbone and George T. M. Shackelford. Impressionist Still Life. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection, Washington. New York, 2001, pp. 23, 50, colorpl. 2, asserts that Degas imitated Delacroix's technique in this picture, which was executed the year after Delacroix's "A Basket of Flowers Overturned in a Park" (MMA 67.187.60) was exhibited in Paris; calls it one of Degas's earliest "disjunctive" portraits, in which the sitter does not seem to be the primary subject of the painting.
Maria Teresa Benedetti in Degas: Classico e moderno. Exh. cat., Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome. Milan, 2004, pp. 29–30, 212, no. 18, ill. p. 213 (color).
Gioia Mori in Degas: Classico e moderno. Exh. cat., Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome. Milan, 2004, pp. 73–74.
Clare A. P. Willsdon. In the Gardens of Impressionism. New York, 2004, pp. 12, 44, 46–48, 50–51, 73, 80–81, 280, colorpl. 47 (detail), pl. 48, observes that the flowers have symbolic meanings that complement the woman's pensive mood, noting that asters, marigolds, and cornflowers connote sadness, doubts, affliction, and melancholy; argues that her positioning on the far right of the composition, with averted eyes and upheld hand displaying a wedding ring may refer to Degas's own ambiguous feelings about marriage and the "push and pull between loss and recovery of self".
Marjorie Benedict Cohn in Degas at Harvard. Exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum. Cambridge, Mass., 2005, pp. 24, 26, fig. 6 (color), remarks that when Paul J. Sachs bought the drawing study (Fogg) in 1920, the painting had already been published in early monographs, so that he was aware of the significance of his purchase.
Vanessa Gavioli in Degas. English ed. [1st ed., Milan, 2003]. New York, 2005, pp. 80–81, 180, ill. (color and black and white).
Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall. Degas and the Art of Japan. Exh. cat., Reading Public Museum. Reading, Pa., 2007, pp. 15, 99 n. 31, suggest that this picture may have been influenced by Utamaro's woodblock print "Reflective Love".
Gary Tinterow in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 107, 239, no. 97, ill. (color and black and white).
Laurence des Cars in Gustave Courbet. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. New York, 2008, p. 327, fig. 2 (color) [French ed., Paris, 2007].
Jane Kinsman. Degas: The Uncontested Master. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia. Canberra, 2008, pp. 176, 179 n. 5.
Joseph J. Rishel in Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection. 4th rev. ed. [1st ed., 1989]. New York, 2009, p. 230, fig. 166 (color).
Clare A. P. Willsdon. Impressionist Gardens. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. London, 2010, p. 24, fig. 15 (color), notes the influence of the Lyons school of flower painters and calls this picture an updated version of the "'gardener-girl'" motif.
