Young Woman Praying

Inscription: Signed (lower left): JJ HENNER

Emma T. Gary, New York (until d. 1934; her estate, 1934–37)

"The Bequest of Emma Townsend Gary." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 32 (July 1937), p. 166.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 47.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, p. 182, ill., call it "A Young Woman Praying" and suggest that it represents Mary Magdalen leaning against the Cross; note that it belongs in the academic category of "'expressive heads'".

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 438, ill.

Isabelle de Lannoy. J. J. Henner: Catalogue raisonné. [Abbeville], 2008, vol. 2, pp. 159–60, 325, 346, 350, no. C.1089, ill., dates it about 1891–92; identifies the same unknown model in the painting "Head in Profile" of the same date (present location unknown; C.1090) and suggests she may also appear in several other pictures (present location unknown, C.1085; Musée d'Orbigny-Bernon, C.1091; Musée national Jean-Jacques Henner, Paris, C.1092; present location unknown, C.1093).

The same unknown model may appear in five other Henner paintings (Lannoy 2008, nos. C.1085, C.1090–93).