Isabelle Lemonnier was the daughter of a successful Parisian jeweler and the younger sister of Marguerite Charpentier, whose grand portrait by Renoir is also in the Metropolitan’s collection (07.122). Between 1879 and 1882 Manet made several portraits of Isabelle, of whom he seems to have been fond; in the summer of 1880 he sent her a series of letters decorated with charming watercolor sketches.
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Title:Mademoiselle Isabelle Lemonnier (1857–1926)
Artist:Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)
Date:1879–82
Medium:Pastel on canvas
Dimensions:22 x 18 1/4 in. (55.9 x 46.4 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
Object Number:29.100.56
Mlle Lemonnier, Paris [by 1882–at least 1902; sold to Gaston or Georges Bernheim]; Van Wisselingh, ?Paris (until 1899; sold on March 8 for Fr 1,000 to Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1899–1901; stock no. 5081; sold April 22 to Havemeyer]; Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, New York (1901–his d. 1907); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1907–d. 1929; cat., 1931, pp. 148–49, ill.)
Paris. La vie moderne. "Œuvres nouvelles d'Édouard Manet," April 1880, no. 13 (as "Portrait of Mlle L") [see Wilson-Bareau 1991].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 183 [2nd ed., 1958, no. 163].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A362.
LOAN OF THIS WORK IS RESTRICTED.
Edouard Manet. Letter to Émile Zola. late July–August 1876 [translated and reprinted in Juliet Wilson-Bareau, "Manet by Himself, Correspondance & Conversation," Boston, 1991, p. 180], notes that he will begin the portrait of Mlle Lemonnier on Friday.
Gustave Goetschy. "Édouard Manet." La vie moderne no. 16 (April 17, 1880), p. 250.
Paul Alexis. "Manet." La revue moderne et naturaliste (1880), p. 293, as the portrait of "Mademoiselle L., le mieux fini et le plus complet, d'un grand charme laiteux, très ressemblant avec cela, rendant bien la douceur et la distinction chaste du modèle" (Miss L., the best finished and the most complete, with great milky charm, very true to life, rendering well the softness and chaste distinction of the model).
"Chronique." Le Temps 20 (April 10, 1880), p. 2, as "le fin portrait de Mlle Lemonnier" (the fine portrait of Miss Lemonnier).
Théodore Duret. Histoire d'Édouard Manet et de son œuvre. Paris, 1902, pp. 251, 281, no. 10, notes that Manet called it "Jeune fille à la rose", and lists it with six other portratis of Mlle Lemonnier made in the years 1876–78; believes he sees the initial M in blue next to the rose.
Théodore Duret. Manet and the French Impressionists. 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1910]. London, 1912, pp. 103, 248, no. 10.
Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. Manet raconté par lui-même. Paris, 1926, vol. 2, pp. 69–70.
A. Tabarant. Manet, histoire catalographique. Paris, 1931, p. 466, no. 27.
Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein. Manet. Paris, 1932, vol. 1, p. 164, no. 358.
A. Tabarant. Manet et ses œuvres. 4th ed. (1st. ed. 1942). Paris, 1947, pp. 369, 546, no. 482, dates it 1879.
John Rewald. Édouard Manet: Pastels. Oxford, 1947, pp. 44, 48, 59, no. 29, fig. 29.
Michel Robida. Ces Bourgeois de Paris: Trois siècles de chronique familiale de 1675 à nos jours. Paris, 1955, pp. 142–43, ill. opp. p. 145, states that Manet made six portraits of Mlle Lemonnier [grandmother of the author], that this pastel was the only one she owned, and that she sold it to Georges Bernheim; remarks that Th[éophile] Poilpot made a perfect copy of it, and inscribed it accordingly.
Michel Robida. Le Salon Charpentier et les impressionnistes. Paris, 1958, pp. 117, 119, repeats the information in Robida 1955, but states that the buyer was Gaston, not Georges Bernheim.
Henri Perruchot. La vie de Manet. Paris, 1959, p. 282.
Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961, p. 232.
Dauberville. Letter to Mrs. Leonard Harris. April 19, 1962, cannot confirm that Gaston Bernheim owned this pastel, noting that neither they nor the family have any recollection of the transaction.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, pp. 47–48, ill., note that the sitter was the sister of Madame Charpentier, depicted in Renoir's portrait (MMA 07.122).
Sandra Orienti inThe Complete Paintings of Manet. New York, 1967, p. 112, no. 294, ill.
Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein. Édouard Manet, catalogue raisonné. Paris, 1975, vol. 1, p. 27; vol. 2, p. 6–7, no. 15, ill.
Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 42–43, ill. (color), notes that this pastel could have been executed in 1879 or in the summer of 1880.
Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 143, 256.
Éric Darragon. Manet. Paris, 1989, p. 337.
Éric Darragon. Manet. Paris, 1991, pp. 304, 306.
Juliet Wilson-Bareau. Manet by Himself, Correspondence & Conversation: Paintings, Pastels, Prints & Drawings. Boston, 1991, pp. 15, 180, 242, 245, 313 no. 210, colorpl. 210, dates it about 1878–80.
Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. Ed. Susan Alyson Stein. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1930, repr. 1961]. New York, 1993, pp. 232, 334 n. 336, notes that the Havemeyers purchased it from Durand-Ruel on April 22, 1901.
Susan Alyson Stein inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 229.
Gretchen Wold inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 356–57, no. A362, ill.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 447, ill.
Beth Archer Brombert. Edouard Manet: Rebel in a Frock Coat. Boston, 1996, pp. 412, 423.
Alan Krell. Manet and the Painters of Contemporary Life. London, 1996, p. 192, fig. 179, dates it about 1878–80.
Carol Armstrong. Manet Manette. New Haven, 2002, p. 250.
Helen Burnham. "Fashion and the Representation of Modernity: Studies in the Late Work of Edouard Manet (1832–1883)." PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2007, pp. 141, 145, colorpl. 3.15, states that the format is suggestive of the typical eighteenth-century pastel "tête" format.
Sarah Lees inNineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Ed. Sarah Lees. Williamstown, Mass., 2012, vol. 2, p. 478, under no. 206.
Ton van Kempen and Nicoline van de Beek. Madame Manet: Muziek en Kunst in het Parijs van de Impressionisten. Culemborg, 2014, p. 161 n. 16.
Philippe Saunier in Thea Burns Philippe Saunier. L'art du pastel. Paris, 2014, ill. p. 250 (color, cropped).
David Pullins. Manet: Three Paintings from the Norton Simon Museum. Exh. cat., Frick Collection. New York, 2019, p. 68.
Emily A. Beeny inManet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years. Ed. Scott Allan, Emily A. Beeny, and Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Los Angeles, 2019, p. 110 n. 92.
Mademoiselle Lemonnier was a younger sister of Madame Charpentier, pictured in Renoir's portrait (The Met 07.122). Manet made a number of portraits of the sitter between 1879 and 1880 (RW301–4, 404), and titled this work "La jeune fille à la rose" (see Duret 1902).
According to Robida (1955 and 1958) Théophile Poilpot made an exact copy of this pastel.
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