Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings Signed (lower left): Renoir.
Gallery Label In this painting, Renoir portrays a waitress who worked at one of several Parisian restaurants established by a butcher named Duval. These "Établissements de Bouillon" were described in an 1881 Baedeker guidebook as offering a limited and affordable menu to patrons "waited on by women, soberly garbed, and not unlike sisters of charity." Renoir imparted to his comely model an unaffected grace, and, as he once explained in a different context, "I like painting best when it looks eternal without boasting about it: an everyday eternity, revealed on the street corner: a servant-girl pausing a moment as she scours a saucepan, and becoming a Juno on Olympus."
Provenance [Durand-Ruel, Paris, by 1885–1906, bought from the artist for Fr 800; sold on February 3, 1906, no. 41, as "La servante," for Fr 15,000 through Hébrard to Wagram]; Louis-Alexandre Berthier, prince de Wagram, Paris (1906–9; consigned on October 6, 1909 to Galerie Druet, Paris; sold in 1910 for Fr 12,000 to Barbazanges); [Barbazanges, Paris, 1910–12; sold to Scherbatow]; S. A. Scherbatow, Moscow (1912–18/19); Museum of Modern Art, Moscow (1918/19–33; sold on May 9, 1933 through Knoedler, New York to Clark); Stephen C. Clark, New York (1933–d. 1960)
Exhibition History New York. American Art Association. "Works in Oil and Pastel by the Impressionists of Paris," April 10–28, 1886, no. 213.
New York. National Academy of Design. "Works in Oil and Pastel by the Impressionists of Paris," May 25–June 30, 1886, no. 213.
St. Petersburg. Institut Français. "Exposition centennale de l'art français," January 28–? 1912, no. 529.
New York. Century Club. "French Masterpieces of the Nineteenth Century," January 11–February 10, 1936, no. 15.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Renoir: A Special Exhibition of His Paintings," May 18–September 12, 1937, no. 13.
New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European & American Paintings, 1500–1900," May–October 1940, no. 336.
New York. Duveen Galleries. "Renoir, Centennial Loan Exhibition, 1841-1941," November 8–December 6, 1941, no. 15.
New York. Century Association. "Paintings from the Stephen C. Clark Collection," June 6–September 28, 1946, unnum. checklist.
New York. Paul Rosenberg & Co.. "Collectors' Choice: Masterpieces of French Art from New York Private Collections," March 17–April 18, 1953, no. 5.
New York. M. Knoedler & Co.. "A Collectors Taste: Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen C. Clark," January 12–30, 1954, no. 14.
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Pictures Collected by Yale Alumni," May 8–June 18, 1956, no. 110.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings from Private Collections: Summer Loan Exhibition," July 1–September 1, 1958, no. 113.
New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc.. "Renoir," April 8–May 10, 1958, no. 11.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings from Private Collections: Summer Loan Exhibition," July 7–September 7, 1959, no. 89.
Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Masterpieces of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Painting," April 25–May 24, 1959, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings from Private Collections: Summer Loan Exhibition," July 6–September 4, 1960, no. 94.
Amsterdam. Rijksmuseum Vincent Van Gogh. "Franse meesters uit het Metropolitan Museum of Art: Realisten en Impressionisten," March 15–May 31, 1987, no. 18.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "From Delacroix to Matisse," March 15–May 10, 1988, no. 19.
Moscow. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. "From Delacroix to Matisse," June 10–July 30, 1988, no. 19.
Fort Lauderdale. Museum of Art. "Corot to Cézanne: 19th Century French Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," December 22, 1992–April 11, 1993, no catalogue.
Williamstown. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. "The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings," June 4–September 4, 2006, no. 340.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 97.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings," May 22–August 19, 2007, no. 340.
References Louis Hautecœur. "L'exposition centennale de peinture française à Saint-Pétersbourg." Les arts no. 129 (September 1912), p. 30, ill.L'art français a Saint-Pétersbourg: Exposition centennale . Exh. cat.Paris, 1912, p. 90.L'Amour de l'art 6 (December 1925), pp. 459, 462, ill.Exhibition of French Masterpieces of the Nineteenth Century . Exh. cat., Century Club. New York, 1936, unpaginated, no. 15, ill.Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 32 (May 1937), pp. 109, 112, ill.Art News Annual 37 (February 25, 1939), pp. 132, 138, ill.Renoir, Centennial Loan Exhibition, 1841–1941 . Exh. cat., Duveen Galleries. New York, 1941, pp. 17, 37, 124–25, no. 15, ill.Renoir . Paris, 1944, pp. 39–41, 193, no. 23, ill.Renoir . Geneva, 1954, p. 32.Letter to Theodore Rousseau . April 4, 1963.French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art . 3, New York, 1967, pp. 147–48, ill.Auguste Renoir: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint . 1, Lausanne, 1971, unpaginated, no. 101, ill.in Renoir . Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery. [London], 1985, p. 26 [French ed., p. 42].Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art . New York, 1985, pp. 90–91, ill. (color).Letter to Gretchen Wold . December 8, 1987.Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) (December 20, 1992), p. 4D, ill. p. 1D.Miami Herald (December 20, 1992), p. 6I.in The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings . Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 2006, pp. 315, 341, no. 340.in The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings . Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 2006, p. 253.in The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings . Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 2006, p. 156, fig. 127 (color).Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles . 1, Paris, 2007, pp. 436–37, no. 415, ill.in The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920 . Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 135, 251–52, no. 97, ill. (color and bw).in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art . New York, 2007, pp. 151, 297, no. 140, ill. (color and bw).
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