The Japanese Robe
Stevens painted this fashionable example of the traditional motif of a woman gazing into a mirror with the help of an auburn-haired model who has been identified as his sister-in-law. She wears a blue floral kimono and holds an uchiwa fan, two characteristic items of Japanese apparel often appropriated by European artists fascinated by Japanese culture, a trend called "Japonisme." Stevens most likely kept these props for use in his studio. The work was commissioned by the Met’s early patron Catharine Lorillard Wolfe after another version of the composition (1872, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Liège).
Artwork Details
- Title:The Japanese Robe
- Artist:Alfred Stevens (Belgian, Brussels 1823–1906 Paris)
- Date:ca. 1872
- Medium:Oil on canvas
- Dimensions:36 1/2 x 25 1/8 in. (92.7 x 63.8 cm)
- Classification:Paintings
- Credit Line:Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Bequest of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, 1887
- Object Number:87.15.56
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
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Alfred Stevens (Belgian, Brussels 1823–1906 Paris)
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1874
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1888
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