Woman Standing Beside a Balustrade with a Poodle

Inscription: Signed (lower right): P. Ranson

private collection (by bequest to Lemoine); her son, Jean-Gabriel Lemoine; [Lucien Goldschmidt, New York, until 1965; sold on June 14 to Altschul]; Mr. and Mrs. Arthur G. Altschul, New York (1965–his d. 2002); his widow, Mrs. Patricia Altschul, Charleston, S.C. (2002–8; sale, Sotheby's, New York, November 6, 2002, no. 123B, bought in)

University Park. Pennsylvania State University College of Arts and Architecture, Hetzel Union Building Gallery. "The Nabis," February 1–28, 1971, no. 50 (as "Lady on a Terrace," 1895, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur G. Altschul).

Cleveland Museum of Art. "Japonisme: Japanese Influence on French Art 1854–1910," July 9–August 31, 1975, no. 190 (as "Woman Standing Beside a Balustrade with a Poodle," lent by Arthur G. Altschul).

New Brunswick, N.J. Rutgers University Art Gallery. "Japonisme: Japanese Influence on French Art 1854–1910," October 4–November 16, 1975, no. 190.

Baltimore. Walters Art Gallery. "Japonisme: Japanese Influence on French Art 1854–1910," December 10, 1975–January 26, 1976, no. 190.

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Post-Impressionism: Cross-Currents in European Painting," November 17, 1979–March 16, 1980, no. 164 (as "Woman Standing Beside a Balustrade with a Poodle," lent by Arthur G. Altschul).

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Pleasures of Paris: Daumier to Picasso," June 5–September 1, 1991, no. 46 (as "Woman Standing beside a Balustrade with a Poodle [Femme debout contre une balustrade avec un caniche]," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur G. Altschul).

New York. IBM Gallery of Science and Art. "Pleasures of Paris: Daumier to Picasso," October 15–December 28, 1991, no. 46.

Kunsthaus Zürich. "Die Nabis: Propheten der Moderne," May 28–August 15, 1993, no. 75 (as "Femme à la balustrade avec un caniche / Frau mit Pudel an der Balustrade," lent by Arthur G. Altschul).

Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Nabis 1888–1900," September 21, 1993–January 3, 1994, no. 75 (as "Femme à la balustrade avec un caniche," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur G. Altschul, New York).

Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Musée départemental Maurice Denis "Le Prieuré". "Paul Elie Ranson (1861–1909), Du symbolisme à l'art nouveau," October 25, 1997–January 25, 1998, no. 48 (as "Femme à la balustrade ou Femme au caniche," lent by a private collection).

Florence. Palazzo Corsini. "Il tempo dei Nabis," March 28–June 28, 1998, no. 96 (as "Donna alla balaustra con cagnolino," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur G. Altschul, New York).

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. "The Time of the Nabis," August 20–November 22, 1998, no. 102 (as "Woman at a Balustrade with a Poodle," lent by the Mr. and Mrs. Arthur G. Altschul collection).

Roslyn Harbor, N.Y. Nassau County Museum of Art. "La Belle Epoque and Toulouse-Lautrec," June 8–September 7, 2003, unnumbered cat. (as "Woman Standing Beside Railing with Poodle," courtesy Mrs. Arthur G. Altschul).

Gerald Needham in Gabriel P. Weisberg et al. Japonisme: Japanese Influence on French Art 1854–1910. Exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1975, pp. 126, 139, no. 190, ill. pp. 132 (color), 138, discusses the Japoniste characteristics of the painting; compares it to Suzuki Harunobu's "Girl with Cat" (1768–69, Newark Museum).

MaryAnne Stevens in Post-Impressionism: Cross-Currents in European Painting. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1979, pp. 118–19, no. 164, ill., states that the painting illustrates Ranson's interest in the applied arts.

Richard Shone. "Post-Impressionism." Burlington Magazine 122 (January 1980), p. 80, fig. 115, cites the painting as an example of Gauguin's influence.

Barbara Stern Shapiro et. al. Pleasures of Paris: Daumier to Picasso. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1991, pp. 61, 183, no. 46, ill., states that the fashionably dressed woman has paused during a stroll in the Tuileries and that she bears an uncanny likeness to France Ranson, Paul Ranson's wife, in Maurice Denis's "Portrait de Madame Ranson au chat" (Portrait of Madame Ranson with a cat) (ca. 1892, Musée départemental Maurice Denis, Saint-Germain-en-Laye).

Ursula Perucchi-Petri in Die Nabis: Propheten der Moderne. Ed. Claire Frèches-Thory and Ursula Perucchi-Petri. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. Munich, 1993, p. 86, fig. 21 (color) [French ed., "Nabis 1888–1900," p. 85, fig. 21 (color)].

Claire Frèches-Thory in Die Nabis: Propheten der Moderne. Ed. Claire Frèches-Thory and Ursula Perucchi-Petri. Exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich. Munich, 1993, p. 206, no. 75 [French ed., "Nabis 1888–1900," p. 206, no. 75], dates it 1895; states that its format derives from Japanese "kakemonos" and that Ranson may have been inspired by Japanese prints of women depicted at rear three-quarter view; notes that it follows the yellow and ochre harmonies of Denis's earlier portrait of France Ranson; remarks upon the sophistication of the sitter's costume and the picture's proximity to Gauguin's cloisonism; compares it to Félix Vallotton's "La Femme au caniche" (Woman with a poodle) (ca. 1895, location unknown) and Pierre Bonnard's "Andrée Bonnard avec ses chiens" (Andrée Bonnard with her dogs) (1890, private collection).

Agnès Delannoy in Paul Elie Ranson: Du symbolisme à l'art nouveau. Exh. cat., Musée départemental Maurice Denis "Le Prieuré," Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Paris, 1997, pp. 102–3, no. 48, ill. (color), dates it about 1893; states that the figure's profile evokes Ranson's "Portrait de France Ranson" (Portrait of France Ranson) (1888, private collection) but that the model's Parisian style and the "japoniste" silhouette preclude an absolute identification of the model as Ranson's wife; compares it to Pierre Bonnard's "La femme à la pélerine" (The Woman with a Mantle) (1891, Musée d'Orsay, Paris), from Bonnard's series of panels "Femmes au jardin" (Women in the Garden).

Claire Frèches-Thory in Il tempo dei Nabis. Exh. cat., Palazzo Corsini. Florence, 1998, p. 193, no. 96, colorpl. 96 [Canadian ed., "The Time of the Nabis," Montreal, 1998, no. 102, ill. pp. 55 (color), 106], dates it 1895; notes that the three arched forms in the foreground mark the space as a public garden and that the poodle's sophisticated shearing echoes the woman's fashionable outfit.

Brigitte Ranson Bitker and Gilles Genty. Paul Ranson, 1861–1909: Catalogue raisonné: Japonisme, symbolisme, art nouveau. Paris, 1999, p. 179, no. 194, ill. (color), as "Femme à la balustrade ou Femme avec caniche" (Woman by the Balustrade or Woman with Poodle); date it 1895; compare the zigzag of the ribbon that trails her mantle to Georges Seurat's dynamogenic use of line.

Gilles Genty in Brigitte Ranson Bitker and Gilles Genty. Paul Ranson, 1861–1909: Catalogue raisonné: Japonisme, symbolisme, art nouveau. Paris, 1999, p. 37.