Young Mother Gazing at Her Child

Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): W-BOVGVEREAV-1871

[Goupil, Paris, 1871–72; stock no. 6009; purchased from the artist, as "La Toilette (Italienne et son enfant)," on December 23, 1871, for Fr 8,000; sold on April 27, 1872, for Fr 17,000, to Knoedler]; [M. Knoedler, New York, from 1872]; Mrs. J. T. Pyle, New York (from the 19th century); her daughter, Zene Montgomery Pyle (until d. 1993)

Milwaukee Art Museum. "Bouguereau & America," February 15–May 12, 2019, no. 15.

Ch[arles]. Vendryes. Catalogue illustré des oeuvres de W. Bouguereau. Paris, 1885, p. 46, as "Jeune Mère contemplant son enfant".

Marius Vachon. W. Bouguereau. Paris, 1900, p. 150, as "Jeune mère contemplant son enfant".

Gary Tinterow. "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1993–1994." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 52 (Fall 1994), p. 47, ill., comments that Bouguereau continued to paint Raphaelesque images of women and children in spite of the Franco-Prussian War, adding that "the resolute calm projected by this picture seems to be his response to the chaos in the streets of France".

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 437, ill.

Damien Bartoli with Frederick Ross. William Bouguereau. Vol. 1, His Life and Works. New York, 2010, colorpl. 102.

Damien Bartoli with Frederick Ross. William Bouguereau. Vol. 2, Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Work. New York, 2010, pp. 139, 365, no. 1871/18, ill. (color), call it "Le lever (Getting Up)"; note that the artist listed it as "Italienne et son enfant" in his accounts.

Tanya Paul in Bouguereau & America. Ed. Tanya Paul and Stanton Thomas. Exh. cat., Milwaukee Art Museum. Milwaukee, 2019, pp. 104–7, no. 15, ill. (color, overall and detail), notes its implicit reference to the Virgin and Child; calls the mother's costume a specific Italian peasant outfit that stemmed from women he would have seen during his time in Italy; recounts the picture's time in the Pyle family collection.

Eric Zafran in Bouguereau & America. Ed. Tanya Paul and Stanton Thomas. Exh. cat., Milwaukee Art Museum. Milwaukee, 2019, pp. 37, 43.