When this painting was shown in the Salon of 1866, some critics censured Courbet's "lack of taste" as well as his model's "ungainly" pose and "disheveled hair." Yet they were not unanimous, and the French state briefly considered purchasing it. Courbet himself wrote: "After twenty-five years of struggle, I am still fighting; and today I am still doing exactly the same kind of painting that in the beginning unleashed the entire official world against me . . . . " The provocative picture found favor with a younger generation of artists. Manet began his version of the subject (89.21.3) the same year; and Cézanne apparently carried a small photograph of the present work in his wallet.
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Title:Woman with a Parrot
Artist:Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819–1877 La Tour-de-Peilz)
Date:1866
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:51 x 77 in. (129.5 x 195.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
Object Number:29.100.57
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): .66 / Gustave.Courbet.
the artist (until 1870; sold in spring for Fr 15,000 to Bordet); Jules Bordet, Dijon (1870–98; deposited at Durand-Ruel, Paris, on February 2, 1895, deposit no. 8623; deposited at Durand-Ruel, New York, on November 4, 1895, deposit no. 5358; sold on April 30, 1898, for Fr 20,000 to Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1898; stock no. 1994; sold on April 30, for $12,000 to Havemeyer]; Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, New York (1898–his d. 1907); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1907–d. 1929; cat., 1931, pp. 76–77, ill.)
Paris. Salon. May 1–?, 1866, no. 463 (as "La femme au perroquet").
Brussels. location unknown. "Exposition générale des beaux-arts," 1866, no. 144.
Paris. Rond-Point du Pont de l'Alma. "Exposition des œuvres de M. G. Courbet," April 30–November 1867, no. 10.
Munich. Königlichen Glaspalaste. "I. Internationale Kunstausstellung," July 20–October 31, 1869, no. 1304 (as "Ein Mädchen mit einem Papagei spielend").
Paris. Ecole des Beaux-Arts. "Exposition des œuvres de Gustave Courbet," May 1882, no. 13 (lent by M. Jules Bordet).
Paris. Exposition Internationale Universelle. "Exposition centennale de l'art français (1789–1889)," May–November 1889, no. 210 (lent by M. Jules Bordet).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Loan Exhibition of the Works of Gustave Courbet," April 7–May 18, 1919, no. 24 (as "The Woman with a Parrot [La femme au perroquet]," lent anonymously).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 21 (as "Woman with a Parrot") [2nd ed., 1958, no. 93].
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "French Art: 1200–1900," January 4–March 12, 1932, no. 436 [commemorative catalogue, no. 320, pl. 112].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art Treasures of the Metropolitan," November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953, no. 141.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Venetian Tradition," November 9, 1956–January 1, 1957, no. 8.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Gustave Courbet, 1819–1877," December 17, 1959–February 14, 1960, no. 60 (as "La femme au perroquet [Womand with a Parrot]").
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Gustave Courbet, 1819–1877," February 26–April 14, 1960, no. 60.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, not in catalogue.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Gustave Courbet, 1819–1877," September 30, 1977–January 2, 1978, no. 96.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Gustave Courbet, 1819–1877," January 19–March 19, 1978, no. 91.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "The Second Empire, 1852–1870: Art in France under Napoleon III," October 1–November 26, 1978, no. VI-30.
Detroit Institute of Arts. "The Second Empire, 1852–1870: Art in France under Napoleon III," January 15–March 18, 1979, no. VI-30.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "L'art en France sous le Second Empire," May 11–August 13, 1979, no. 198.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "From Delacroix to Matisse," March 15–May 10, 1988, no. 10.
Moscow. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. "From Delacroix to Matisse," June 10–July 30, 1988, no. 10.
Brooklyn Museum. "Courbet Reconsidered," November 4, 1988–January 16, 1989, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A145.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869," April 19–August 8, 1994, no. 45.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Origins of Impressionism," September 27, 1994–January 8, 1995, no. 45.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 28.
Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Gustave Courbet," October 13, 2007–January 28, 2008, no. 179.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Gustave Courbet," February 27–May 18, 2008, no. 179.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Making The Met, 1870–2020," August 29, 2020–January 3, 2021, unnumbered cat. (fig. 138).
Gustave Courbet. Letter to comte Alfred-Emilien de Nieuwerkerke. [August 1865?] [excerpt quoted in Courbet, letter to Nieuwerkerke, July 27, 1866; see Chu 1992, p. 288, under letter 66-18], referring to this work, states, “I am working at present on your large painting. I have a model who is posing for me and I don’t plan on leaving my atelier . . . .”.
Victor Frond. Letter to Georges. August 15, 1865 [quoted in Courbet, letter to comte Alfred-Emilien de Nieuwerkerke, August 10, 1866; quoted in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 294, under letter 66-20], the artist's friend reports to a mutual acquaintance Georges [last name unknown] that Nieuwerkerke, who was both Superintendant of the French state's Fine Arts Administration and a private collector, had visited the artist's studio and "bought a painting that Courbet is currently working on [this work] and a landscape. It is a 'small' commission for twelve thousand francs".
Gustave Courbet. Letter to his family. [November 17, 1865] [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 268, letter 65-16], writing from Trouville, states that he will stay in Paris over the winter, where he will complete two paintings begun “for the coming Exhibition that I can only do in Paris,” including “the one that belongs to M. de Nieuwerkerke,” probably this work.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to Alfred Bruyas. [January–February 1866] [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 275, letter 66-5], states that there are one and a half months [until the Salon], where he will exhibit a landscape and, in reference to this work, “a nude woman”.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to his family. [January 3, 1866] [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 271, letter 66-2], mentions “the two paintings sold to M. de Nieuwerkerke,” including this work.
Jules Vallès. L'Événement (March 11, 1866), p. 1 [reprinted in Ref. Courthion 1950], praises the picture before its exhibition at the Salon.
comte Alfred-Emilien de Nieuwerkerke. Letter to Gustave Courbet. March 20, 1866 [cited in Courbet, letter to Nieuwerkerke, July 27, 1866; see Chu 1992, p. 288, under letter 66-18], replies to Courbet’s letter from earlier in the month, stating that he is unable to visit, and that the artist will not be allowed an extension of time to work on the painting further.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to Arthur Stevens. March 22, 1866 [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 276, letter 66-6], tells the dealer (brother of the painter Alfred Stevens) that his painting "Burial at Ornans" (1849, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 583; Fernier 91) “is the statement of the principles of Realism, which will book its ultimate success this year at the Exhibition, opening on the first of May, with the two paintings that I have just sent there [this work and "Covert of Roe-Deer at the Stream of Plaisir-Fontaine (Doubs)" (1866, Musée d’Orsay RF 583; Fernier 552)]".
Gustave Courbet. Letter to the comte de Nieuwerkerke. April 2, 1866 [Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Cabinet des Estampes, Papiers Courbet, box 5 (transcription in Dept. of European Paintings files); excerpt quoted in Courbet, letter to Nieuwerkerke, July 27, 1866, published in transl. in Chu 1992, p. 288, under letter 66-18; see also Cars 2008, pp. 367, 369 n. 4], informs him that the painting is not yet finished and requires a few hours of work to complete some details, writing, “Since the painting belongs to you . . . will you not send it to me for a single day so that I can finish a few feathers on the parrot, the tapestry in the background, the ends of the hair, etc.?”.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to Urbain Cuenot. [April 6, 1866] [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, pp. 276–78, letter 66-7], relates to his childhood friend that the picture has been accepted by the Salon jury with great enthusiasm; that Nieuwerkerke, who had sent a message calling it a “masterpiece,” was “figuring on giving him” Fr 10,000 for it, adding “I don’t know whether he will stick to that price”; boasts about praise from academic painters whom he long considered nemeses, stating, “[Alexandre] Cabanel complimented me on the Woman, as have [Isidore] Pils and [Paul] Baudry. I told you a long time ago that I would give them a fist right in the face. That bunch of scoundrels, they caught it!”.
comte Alfred-Emilien de Nieuwerkerke. Letter to Gustave Courbet. April 7, 1866 [transcribed in Courbet, letter to Nieuwerkerke, July 27, 1866; published in Mazauric 1968, p. 33; published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 289, under letter 66-18], writes, “The painting in question, though it belongs to the administration, may not be removed from the Exhibition until later on . . . . If you wish to retouch it, I will be happy to have it placed in a private room in the Palais de l’Industrie.” [see Courbet’s letters to Chennevières-Pointel, June 29 and July 10, 1866; see Chu 1992, pp. 285–86].
Gustave Courbet. Letter to the marquis Charles-Philippe de Chennevières-Pointel. [April 18] [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 279, letter 66-8], writes to the French state’s General Inspector of Art Exhibitions in charge of the Salon that “the comte de Nieuwerkerke has authorized me to finish a piece of drapery” in the painting, then in the still-unopened Salon, and states that he will come in person to ask for it the next day or shortly afterward.
A. Baignères. Revue contemporaine 51 (1866), pp. 347–48, considers this picture the turning point in the public's acceptance of Courbet.
Charles Blanc. "Salon de 1866." Gazette des beaux-arts 20 (1866), p. 510, criticizes it for vulgarity and faults in drawing.
Maxime du Camp. Revue des deux mondes 63 (1866), pp. 711–12, considers it mediocre.
Jules Castagnary. La Liberté (May 1866) [reprinted in "Salons 1857–1870," Paris, 1892, vol. 1, pp. 239–40], calls it a representation of a real woman of the time, and a work of superior conception and painting.
P. Challemel-Lacour. "Le Salon de 1866." La Revue moderne (1866), pp. 534–35.
Cham. "Promenade au salon." Le Charivari (May 1866) [reprinted in Ref. Léger 1920, p. 61], illustrates a caricature of this picture.
Léon Lagrange. "Le Salon de 1866." Le Correspondant 32 (1866), p. 196.
Etienne-Joseph-Théophile Thoré. Salon de 1866. 1866 [reprinted in "Salons de W. Bürger, 1861 à 1868," 1870, vol. 2, pp. 277, 283–84], asserts that in preparation for "Venus and Psyche" (F370; present location unknown), Courbet executed a study (F527; State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg) that became the prototype for our picture; calls the figure "une femme toute moderne, et, si vous voulez, une courtisane".
Emile Zola. Mon salon. Paris, 1866, pp. 57–58, 60, finds it lacks the artist's usual power.
Felix Jahyer. Deuxième étude sur les beaux-arts: Salon de 1866. Paris, 1866, pp. 81, 86–87, praises this picture.
Ludovic Halévy. Journal entry. May 11, 1866 [reprinted in "Carnets," Paris, 1935, vol. 1, pp. 109–10], refers to it as "Femme couchée" and calls it an admirable painting.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to marquis Charles-Philippe de Chennevières-Pointel. May 12, [1866] [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, pp. 280–81, letter 66-10], writes that M. Lepel-Cointet of Paris [Aimée Honoré Lepel-Cointet (1796–1872)] has paid him one thousand five hundred francs to commission “a nude woman from me in the same genre as the one in the Salon” [this work] and requests assistance in facilitating that through Nieuwerkerke.
Jules Lermina. "Du jour au lendemain." Le Soleil (May 15, 1866), pp. 1–2, writes “Plusieurs journaux ont annoncé à tort que M. de Nieuwerkerke avait acheté pour le compte de l’Etat le magnifique paysage de Courbet ["Covert of Roe-Deer at the Stream of Plaisir-Fontaine (Doubs)," Salon of 1866, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 583; Fernier 552]. Il y a eu confusion. Le directeur des Beaux-Arts visitait, il y a environ six mois, l’atelier du maître Séance tenante, il fit l’acquisition d’une toile:'Paysage du Puits-Noir' [Salon of 1865, Musée d’Orsay, RF 275; Fernier 462], et commanda en même temps au peintre: 'la Femme au Perroquet,' dont il fixait d’avance le prix à 10,000 francs. Le lendemain, M. de Nieuwerkerke, envoyait spontanément à Courbet 2,000 francs pour prix du tableau qu’il avait emporté dès la veille”.
C. de Sault. "Salon de 1866." Le temps no. 1840 (May 18, 1866), p. 2, considers the drawing inconsistent.
Louis Enault. Revue illustrée des eaux minérales, des bains de mer, de stations hivernales (May 27, 1866), p. 162 [reprinted in Les amis de Gustave Courbet, Bulletin no. 35, 1966, p. 5].
Charles Beaurin. "Le salon de 1866." Revue du XIXe siècle 1 (June 1, 1866), p. 454, states that despite the stiffness of the forms, it is a study of some beauty.
Gustave Courbet. Contract with Ledot Sr., Paris. June 1866 [Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Cabinet des Estampes, Paris, Yb3.1739 (4o), box 1; see Chu 1992, p. 361 n. 1, under letter 70-1], cedes reproduction rights, together with those for "Venus and Psyche" (Fernier 370) and "Covert of the Roedeer" (Fernier 552), to the publisher for a period of three years.
Paul de Saint-Victor. "Salon de 1866. 5e article (1)." La presse (June 10, 1866), p. 3, finds it lacking in style and substance.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to comte Alfred-Emilien de Nieuwerkerke. June 16, 1866 [published in Mazauric 1968, p. 28, and in English transl. in Chu 1992, pp. 282–83, letter 66-14], responding facetiously to a request from the Fine Arts Administration [led by Nieuwerkerke] to purchase the painting for six thousand francs, Courbet claims that he had refused to sell it to a private individual for fifteen thousand francs, given that it already belongs to Nieuwerkerke, who, he writes, had previously set the price at ten thousand francs [see Courbet, letter to Urbain Cuenot, April 6, 1866]; encloses a receipt for the painting.
comte Alfred-Emilien de Nieuwerkerke. Draft letter to Gustave Courbet. June 16/19, 1866 [published in Mazauric 1968, p. 28, and in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 283 n. 1, under letter 66-14].
comte Alfred-Emilien de Nieuwerkerke. Letter to Gustave Courbet. June 19, 1866 [published in Mazauric 1968, p. 28 (final text); and quoted in English transl. in Chu 1992, pp. 287, 290, letter 66-18; see also p. 284 n. 2, under letter 66-15], denies that a price for the picture was agreed upon; maintains that he urged Courbet to complete it so that he might buy it from the exhibition [the Salon], but that he could not afford six thousand francs on his own account; encourages Courbet to accept the sum of fifteen thousand francs that the artist claimed to have been offered by another collector.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to comte Alfred-Emilien de Nieuwerkerke. June 27, 1866 [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, pp. 283–84, letter 66-15], reprising the facetiousness of his letter of June 16, 1866, states that when Nieuwerkerke had visited his studio ten months earlier [August 1865] he chose two paintings, including this one, which was then “in the sketching stage,” quoting Nieuwerkerke as having said, “If that canvas does not belong to anyone, it belongs to me, it is mine. Finish it exactly as it is, without adding anything”; adds that on a later occasion, Nieuwerkerke reportedly asked, through an intermediary [Victor Frond], “Do you think M. Courbet will be satisfied with ten thousand francs? . . . The answer was yes. I acknowledged your oral agreement . . . . I considered the question and the reply as constituting a genuine contract”; notes that the foregoing had been recounted in the press and that Nieuwerkerke did not dispel those reports, implying consent; rejects Niewerkerke’s claim that, during his studio visit, he had only “urged me to do the painting so that he might buy it from me at the Exhibition”; of Nieuwerkerke’s offer of six thousand francs, concludes “I find this belated and paltry offer unseemly in regard to me and unfair”; recalls a conversation with Nieuwerkerke in March 1866, in which, prompted by having had to change models several times, and needing an extension to complete the painting, he urged him to visit his atelier to see the painting in progress and offer comments, “for I don’t know if the painting that you commissioned from me is to your liking”.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to marquis Charles-Philippe de Chennevières-Pointel. June 29, 1866 [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 285, letter 66-16], asks him to retrieve the letter from Nieuwerkerke authorizing him to complete the painting [mentioned in Courbet, letter to Chennevières-Pointel, April 18, 1866], in which, to the best of his recollection, Nieuwerkerke had written of the painting that it “belongs to me.” [see also Nieuwerkerke’s letter to Courbet, April 7, 1866, and Courbet’s letter to Chennevières-Pointel, July 10, 1866].
comte Alfred-Emilien de Nieuwerkerke. Letter to Gustave Courbet. July 3, 1866 [published in Mazauric 1968, pp. 30–31; excerpt quoted in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 287, letter 66-18, and p. 294, under letter 66-20, as dated July 2], describes his first encounter with the painting: “Je me rends chez vous, je choisis une de vos toiles, et en voyant 'La Femme au perroquet,' je vous dis que ce tableau pourrait convenir à l’administration. Je vous engageai à ne rien changer à la composition, et je vous promis d’en faire l’acquisition à la suite de l’Exposition si vous le terminiez dans les mêmes conditions où il avait été commencé. Il ne fut pas question de prix!” (“I go to your [studio], I choose one of your paintings, and, seeing 'The Woman with a Parrot,' I tell you that this painting could be suitable for the administration. I urge you not to change anything in the composition, and I promise to acquire it after the Exhibition if you finish it under the same conditions in which it had been started. It was not a question of price!”).
Théophile Gautier. Journal officiel (July 4, 1866) [see Ref. Sterling and Salinger 1966], observes that for Courbet this picture is unusual in its poetry and style.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to marquis Charles-Philippe de Chennevières-Pointel. July 10, 1866 [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 286, letter 66-17], follows up on his letter of June 29 concerning the painting, which remained unanswered, warning that, if he does not receive a response within three days, then he will consider the silence to be tacit acknowledgment that his recollection of Nieuwerkerke’s statement “that belongs to me” in reference to the picture to be binding [see Nieuwerkerke’s letter to Courbet, April 7, 1866, and Courbet’s letter to Chennevières-Pointel, June 29, 1866].
Gustave Courbet. Letter to comte Alfred-Emilien de Nieuwerkerke. July 27, 1866 [published in Mazauric 1968, pp. 31–36; published in English transl. in Chu 1992, pp. 287–91, letter 66-18], reports that having now received Nieuwerkerke’s authorization letter [see Courbet, letter to Chennevières-Pointel, April 18, 1866] from Chennevières, he can recount their exchange fully; notes that although Nieuwerkerke described the painting as belonging to the administration on April 7 and as no longer belonging to the administration on June 19, their exchange proves that both men were aware that an agreement regarding the painting’s purchase existed between Courbet as painter and Nieuwerkerke as private collector; offers two reasons to explain why Nieuwerkerke may have reneged; repeats that he was told Nieuwerkerke offered ten thousand francs for it and that he might have accepted six thousand francs if Nieuwerkerke had not denied the purchase entirely.
Charles Beauquier. Revue littéraire de la Franche-Comté (August 1, 1866) [reprinted in "Les amis de Gustave Courbet," Bulletin no. 35, 1966, pp. 3–4], calls it "Femme nue," and notes it is to be reproduced as a lithograph by M. Lassalle.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to his family. [August 6, 1866] [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 293, letter 66-19], states that he must send the painting to an exhibition whose opening has been delayed for five days so that it could be included (see Brussels 1866).
Gustave Courbet. Letter to comte Alfred-Emilien de Nieuwerkerke. August 10, 1866 [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, pp. 293–95, letter 66-20], notes that he had received no acknowledgement of his July 27 letter; asserts that the earlier letter proved that his version of events was correct; relates that although he is willing to believe the intermediary, Victor Frond, when he states that he may have misremembered or forgotten the figure quoted, a letter in Frond’s hand confirms that Nieuwerkerke bought this work and “Puits noir” (Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 275) for twelve thousand francs, the latter for two thousand francs; states “I plan to hang, in my atelier, a photographic picture that will consist of three parts, arranged in a triangle. The first will be the letter in which M. de Nieuwerkerke denies purchasing the "Woman with a Parrot" [June 19, 1866]. The other two will be the two letters—M. Frond’s [August 15, 1865], on the one hand, and the Superintendent of the Fine Arts Administration’s [April 7, 1866], on the other—refuting that assertion".
Gustave Courbet. Letter to Charles Yriarte. August 14, 1866 [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 296 (letter 66-21)], responds to an article published by Yriarte in "Le Monde illustré" referencing the negotiations over this painting.
[J. Castagnary]. Le Nain jaune (August 14 and 29, 1866), relates that the Ministry of Fine Arts first rejected and then offered to buy this painting [see Ref. Paris 1867].
Gustave Courbet. Letter to Jules Castagnary. [late summer (?) 1866] [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 297, letter 66-22], reports that he has no news from Nieuwerkerke [about the acquisition of the painting].
Gustave Courbet. Letter to his family. September 2, [1866] [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 298, letter 66-23], states that he is suing Nieuwerkerke for reneging on his purchase of this picture.
Edmond About. Salon de 1866. Paris, 1867, pp. 47–49, criticizes it for vulgarity in details of the figure and setting.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to M. Bardenet. [January 31, 1867] [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 303, letter 67-2], asks the dealer to collect the painting from the publisher Ledot, to whom Courbet had contracted the reproduction rights in June 1866 (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, Cabinet des Estampes, Yb3-1739 [1]-4), frame it, return it to his studio, and show it to collectors for possible sale.
L. Petit. "G. Courbet." Le Hanneton (June 13, 1867) [reprinted in Ref. Léger 1920], copies this and several other works in a caricature.
Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt. Journal entry. September 18, 1867 [published in R. Ricatte, ed., "Journal: Mémoires de la vie littéraire," Paris, 1956, vol. 2, p. 376], describes it as removed from reality as an eighteenth-century academic nude.
Zacharie Astruc. "L'Athènes grise, IV: Courbet." L'investigateur 1 (November 3, 1867), unpaginated, calls it "Femme couchée"; states that this painting and "Remise de chevreuils" "portaient haut sa gloire" (held high his glory).
Arnaud. Le Salon pour rire (1868) [reprinted in Ref. Léger 1920], copies the parrot in a caricature.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to Monsieur Ilmoëton[?]. January 17, 1870 [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 361, letter 70-1], indicates that, having sold the reproduction rights to “the picture” (probably this work) to M. Ledot in the Rue de Rivoli for three years perhaps earlier than three years ago, he is willing to convey the rights to him.
Gustave Courbet. Letter to Juliette Courbet. April 29, 1870 [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 373, letter 70-11], writes to his sister that he sold the picture to M. Bordet from Dijon for fifteen thousand francs and denies that he will marry the collector’s sister, Mme de Villebichot.
Jules Bordet. Draft for a press release announcing his purchase of the work. [before or in early May 1870] [published in Chu 1992, pp. 374–75, under letter 70-12], announces: “We are glad to learn that the painting known the world over by the name of 'Woman with a Parrot' (Salon of 1867 [erroneous reference to Salon of 1866]) has just been bought by M. Jules Bordet of Dijon for the sum of twenty thousand francs. We are sure that this inimitable work by our great painter Gustave Courbet will stay in our country. It will therefore not undergo the fate of two other paintings by the same artist, one of which is in Constantinople, the other in Boston. We are referring to the 'Mort' ["Death of the Stag," or "The Quarry," painted 1856 and exh. Salon of 1867, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 18.620; Fernier 188] and 'Venus and Psyche' [actually "Sleep," 1866, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Petit Palais, PPP3130; Fernier 532 (and not Fernier 370 or 371)]. M. Jules Bordet is also the purchaser of five other paintings by the same painter and is preparing them for a charity in the course of the regional event that will soon be taking place in Dijon [Exposition au profit des femmes des condamnés du Creusot]. We therefore cannot urge the inhabitants of the town of Dijon too strongly to respond to the appeal that will be made to them. In that way they will be contributing to a good cause, while taking advantage of the opportunity offered them to form their own opinion of this fine painting”.
"Le Salon-revue: Troubles au cours de M. Le Professeur Courbet." Le charivari 39 (May 10, 1870), unpaginated [p. 2].
Gustave Courbet. Letter to Jules Castagnary. [April 13, 1874] [published in English transl. in Chu 1992, p. 530, letter 74-8], compares the treatment of the flesh in "Woman with a Parrot" to that in the painting "Circe" in his collection (220 x 184 cm; current whereabouts unknown), which he attributes to Pierre Paul Prud’hon, stating that the latter is “more delicately modeled but nevertheless in the grand historical style”.
comte H. d' Ideville. Gustave Courbet. Paris, 1878, pp. 30, 32–33, 62–64, recalls seeing Courbet working on this picture in his studio.
Paul Mantz. "Gustave Courbet—Part 3." Gazette des beaux-arts, 2nd ser., 18 (1878), pp. 375–76, 378–79, traces its origins to the study of a reclining woman (F527; Hermitage).
J. Troubat. Plume et pinceau (1878), p. 254 [reprinted in Ref. Courthion 1948, p. 130].
Un passant. "Les On-Dit." Le rappel (November 28, 1879), p. 2, states that the stuffed parrot Courbet used for this picture had been found with other effects of Courbet's in a trunk in a home in Besançon.
Emile Durand-Gréville. Entretiens avec J.-J. Henner (May 1882) [published in "Les Amis de Gustave Courbet," no. 37, 1967, p. 15], records Henner's comments about this painting when it was exhibited in 1882.
J.-K. Huysmans. "Le Salon officiel de 1880." L'Art moderne. Paris, 1883, p. 238, states that it is no more realistic than a nude by Lefebvre or Cabanel.
Victor Fournel. Les Artistes français contemporains: Peintres—sculpteurs. Tours, 1884, p. 363, criticizes the arrangement and composition as unrealistic and without taste, but praises the execution as nearly perfect.
Alexandre Estignard. Courbet: sa vie, ses oeuvres. Besançon, 1896, pp. 52–53, 78, 164, 187, lists a study in the Fiorini collection, Geneva (possibly F373).
Julius Meier-Graefe. Corot und Courbet: Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Modernen Malerei. Leipzig, 1905, p. 178.
Henry Marcel. La Peinture française au XIXe siècle. Paris, 1905, p. 208, states incorrectly that it was painted for Khalil-Bey.
Georges Riat. Gustave Courbet peintre. Paris, 1906, pp. 234–42, 252, 256, 270, 276, 387, no. 56, ill., notes the relation of this work to "Venus and Psyche" (F370); describes the Hermitage study (F527) as the first idea for this painting but reproduces another painting of a reclining nude (F536; Museum Mesdag, The Hague) as a study.
Georges Gazier. Gustave Courbet: L'homme et l'oeuvre. Besançon, 1906, p. 33.
Enrico Thovez. "Il realismo democratico: Da Courbet a Roll." La stampa (May 24, 1910), p. 3.
Julius Meier-Graefe. Corot und Courbet. 2nd ed. Munich, 1912, p. 178.
Léonce Bénédite. Courbet. Paris, [1912], pp. 89–90, pl. 37.
[J.] Castagnary. "Fragments d'un livre sur Courbet." Gazette des beaux-arts, 4th ser., 7 (January 1912), p. 24, remarks that this picture and "Remise de chevreuils" (F552; Musée d'Orsay, Paris) renewed the public's favorable opinion of Courbet.
Ambroise Vollard. Paul Cézanne. [Eng. ed., 1923]. Paris, 1914, p. 31, states that upon viewing The Met's picture Cézanne declared, "Moi, je ferai une 'Femme au Cygne'!" (Me, I will do a "Woman with a Swan"!) and thereby found inspiration for his "Leda and the Swan" (ca. 1880 [possibly later], Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia).
Théodore Duret. Courbet. Paris, 1918, pp. 75–76, 149, pl. 26.
Royal Cortissoz. "Gustave Courbet at the Museum." New York Tribune (April 6, 1919), p. 7.
Charles Léger. Courbet selon les caricatures et les images. Paris, 1920, pp. 61, 66, 77, reprints caricatures of this picture by Just Durgy (1866), Cham [Ref. 1866], and Petit [Ref. 1867].
André Fontainas. Courbet. Paris, 1921, pp. 83–84.
Charles Léger. Courbet. Paris, 1925, pp. 76, 79, ill. p. 105.
George Sakier. "La peinture française du XIXe siècle au 'Metropolitan Museum of Art' de New-York." L'amour de l'art 7 (June 1926), p. 203, ill. p. 198.
Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. Bonvin raconté par lui-même. Paris, 1927, p. 72, relates Bonvin's comment at the 1866 Salon that this work was "a Dubufe".
Charles Léger. Courbet. Paris, 1929, pp. 118, 125, 147, 189, records a copy of this picture by Courbet's pupil Cherubino Pata.
Paul Jamot inLa Peinture au Musée du Louvre. Vol. 1, École française. Paris, 1929, p. 15, states that this model also appears in "The Source" (F627; Musée du Louvre, Paris).
Arsène Alexandre. "La Collection Havemeyer: Courbet et Corot." La Renaissance 12 (June 1929), pp. 273, 276, ill. p. 274.
Frank Jewett Mather Jr. "The Havemeyer Pictures." The Arts 16 (March 1930), p. 477, ill. p. 452.
Harry B. Wehle. "The Exhibition of the H. O. Havemeyer Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 25 (March 1930), p. 55.
R. H. Wile[n]ski. French Painting. Boston, 1931, p. 224.
H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, pp. 76–77, ill., calls it "Nude—La femme au perroquet".
George Boas. "Courbet and his Critics." Courbet and the Naturalistic Movement. Ed. George Boas. Baltimore, 1938, pp. 47, 49.
Lionello Venturi. Modern Painters. Vol. 1, New York, 1947, p. 216, fig. 149, calls it a "staggering blunder".
Charles Léger. Courbet et son temps (Lettres et documents inédits). Paris, 1948, pp. 112–13, 196–97, fig. 32.
Pierre Courthion, ed. Courbet raconté par lui-même et par ses amis. Vol. 1, Sa vie et ses oeuvres. Geneva, 1948, pp. 130, 212, 214–15, 220–22.
Marie Luise Kaschnitz. Die Wahrheit, nicht der Traum: Das Leben des Malers Courbet. Leipzig, 1949, pp. 107, 124, 163, 166, 169.
Pierre Courthion, ed. Courbet raconté par lui-même et par ses amis. Vol. 2, Ses écrits, ses contemporains, sa postérité. Geneva, 1950, pp. 231, 301, fig. 7.
Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1952, p. 232, colorpl. 141, remarks that this model posed for Courbet and Whistler a number of times.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 22.
Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), ill. p. 48.
Lionello Venturi. Four Steps Toward Modern Art: Giorgione, Caravaggio, Manet, Cézanne. New York, 1956, p. 54, fig. 20, calls it one of Courbet's greatest mistakes, noting that one can see "the awful fusing of the academic and realistic".
Louisine W. Havemeyer. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961, pp. 184–85, 195–96, recalls that she "begged Mr. Havemeyer to buy [this] picture, not to hang it in our gallery lest the anti-nudists should declare a revolution and revise our Constitution, but just to keep it in America, just that such a work should not be lost to the future generations...".
A. Tabarant. La Vie artistique au temps de Baudelaire. 2nd ed. (1st ed. 1942). [Paris], 1963, pp. 378–79, 381, 389.
Wayne V. Andersen. "Cèzanne's 'Carnet violet-moiré'." Burlington Magazine 107 (June 1965), p. 313, fig. 40 (photograph), notes that Cézanne kept a reproduction of this painting.
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, pp. 124–27, ill.
Lucie Chamson Mazauric. "Comment on perd un tableau." Revue du Louvre et des musées de France 18, no. 1 (1968), pp. 27–36, ill., notes that Nieuwerkerke, draft letter to Courbet, June 16/19, 1866, was written in the margin of Courbet, letter to Nieuwerkerke, June 16,1866.
Hélène Toussaint inGustave Courbet (1819–1877). Exh. cat., Villa Medici. Rome, 1969, pp. XXXI, 38.
Kermit S. Champa and Kate H. Champa. German Painting of the Nineteenth Century. Exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, 1970, pp. 82–83, suggests this picture was a source for Lovis Corinth's "Recumbent Nude" (1899; Kunsthalle Bremen).
Sandra Pinto. Courbet. Paris, 1970, pp. 24, 37, ill. pp. 59–60 (color).
André Fermigier. Courbet. Geneva, 1971, pp. 101–2, 104.
Carl R. Baldwin. The Impressionist Epoch. Exh. brochure, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [New York], 1974, p. 11, remarks that this painting is "devoid of any 'redeeming' allusion to mythology or legend".
Lydie Huyghe in René Huyghe. La Relève de l'imaginaire. La Peinture française au XIXe siècle: Réalisme, romantisme. Paris, 1976, p. 441, erroneously dates it 1886.
Bruno Foucart. G. Courbet. Naefels, Switzerland, 1977, pp. 62, 69, ill. p. 66 (color), compares it to "The Hammock" (1844; Collection Oskar Reinhart, Winterthur; F53).
Paul Abe Isaacs. "The Immobility of the Self in the Art of Edouard Manet: A Study with Special Emphasis on the Relationship of his Imagery to That of Gustave Flaubert and Stephane Mallarmé." PhD diss., Brown University, 1977, p. 598, fig. A-35.
Robert Fernier. La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet. Vol. 2, Peintures, 1866–1877. Lausanne, 1978, pp. 4–5, no. 526, ill.
Marie-Thérèse de Forges inGustave Courbet (1819–1877). Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Paris. London, 1978, pp. 35, 41–43 [French ed., 1977, pp. 36, 41–44], relates the dispute between Courbet and Nieuwerkerke, the Superintendent of Fine Arts, concerning the purchase of this picture for the French government.
Hélène Toussaint inGustave Courbet, 1819–1877. Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Paris. London, 1978, pp. 164, 168–69, no. 91, ill. [French ed., 1977, pp. 181, 186–88, no. 96, ill.], compares it to Gigoux's "Death of Cleopatra" (Musée des Beaux-arts, Chambéry), which Courbet could have seen at the Musée du Luxembourg, and to photographs of the time; repeats anecdote that Thoré suggested this subject to Courbet [Ref. Thoré 1866].
Joseph Rishel inThe Second Empire, 1852–1870: Art in France under Napoleon III. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1978, pp. 276–77, no. VI-30, ill. [French ed., 1977, pp. 331–32], discusses its reception at the Salon of 1866; suggests the subject "may have derived from Dutch seventeenth-century painting, where women with parrots abound, often with the same erotic overtones".
Prof. Dr. Peter-Klaus Schuster inCourbet und Deutschland. Exh. cat., Hamburger Kunsthalle. Cologne, 1978, pp. 240–42, ill., relates it to the study in the Museum Mesdag, The Hague (F536), and to Clesinger's sculpture "Woman Bitten by a Serpent" (Musée du Louvre, Paris); suggests that it was Courbet's response to Manet's "Olympia" (1865; Musée d'Orsay, Paris).
Denys Sutton. "Bonjour tristesse." Apollo 107 (January 1978), p. 8, fig. 16.
Theodore Reff. "Courbet and Manet." Arts Magazine 54 (March 1980), pp. 98, 101, 103. n. 49, fig. 13.
John Rewald. Paul Cézanne: The Watercolors, A Catalogue Raisonné. Boston, 1983, p. 91, cites it as a possible source for Cézanne's watercolor "Le punch au rhum" (Private collection, Stuttgart).
Charles S. Moffett inManet, 1832–1883. Ed. Françoise Cachin and Charles S. Moffett. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983, p.258, ill. [French ed., Paris].
Françoise Cachin inManet, 1832–1883. Ed. Françoise Cachin and Charles S. Moffett. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983, p. 244 [French ed., Paris].
Denise Delouche. "Le Tableau et sa caricature: les oeuvres de Courbet vues par les caricaturistes." L'Image par l'image. Rennes, 1983, unpaginated.
Pierre Courthion. L'opera completa di Courbet. Milan, 1985, pp. 102–3, no. 518, ill.
Nanette Salomon. "Courbet's 'Woman with a Parrot' and the Problem of 'Realism'." Tribute to Lotte Brand Philip: Art Historian and Detective. Ed. William W. Clark et al. New York, 1985, pp. 144–53, fig. 1, suggests a sixteenth-century German woodcut of a nude woman with a parrot originally created by Hans Sebald Beham and copied by Hans Weigel as a possible source for this picture; discusses the iconographic tradition to which it belongs.
Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 56, 110, 193, 239, 256, 262 n. 9, colorpl. 143, describes its reception in 1909 when Mrs. Havemeyer lent it to The Met.
Kathleen Adler. Manet. Oxford, 1986, pp. 88–90, fig. 79, notes that, instead of causing offense, its sensuality ensured Courbet's popularity with the Salon public; discusses the parrot with regard to accepted nineteenth-century symbolism and the model's titillation; states that the model's anonymous commodified body is what kept the image socially acceptable.
John House inThe Hidden Face of Manet: An Investigation of the Artist's Working Processes. Exh. cat., Courtauld Institute Galleries. [London?], 1986, p. 12.
Charles F. Stuckey inThe Art of Paul Gauguin. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1988, p. 268, claims that this picture inspired Gauguin to paint "Te nave nave fenua" (Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan), which "juxtaposes a birdlike lizard with a naked woman for similar erotic effect".
Jean-Jacques Fernier inCherubino Pata, 1827/1899: le vrai faux-Courbet. Exh. cat., Musée-Maison Natale Gustave Courbet. Ornans, 1988, pp. 32–34, ill., discusses a copy after this picture by Pata (location unknown).
Michael Fried in Sarah Faunce and Linda Nochlin. Courbet Reconsidered. Exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn, 1988, pp. 48–52, 228–29 nn. 23–25, 30, fig. 3.6, discusses this picture based on the hypothesis that Courbet was attempting to deny his role as creator and transport himself into the painting; asserts that this composition displays several elements uncharacteristic of Courbet's work.
Michael Fried. Courbet's Realism. Chicago, 1990, pp. 189, 200–201, 203–5, 207, 209, 220, 247, 289, 338–39 nn. 31–34, fig. 75, repeats, with slight modifications, Ref. Fried 1988; compares this work with "Apples, Pears, and Primroses on a Table" (F780; Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena).
Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, ed. Letters of Gustave Courbet.. By Gustave Courbet. Chicago, 1992, p. 368 n. 2, pp. 639–40, states that, although Fernier [1978] associated it with a painting exhibited in Antwerp in 1870 as "La Courtisane," The Met's picture could not have been exhibited in Antwerp then as it was sold that spring to Jules Bordet; states that Bordet evidently failed to complete payment [by February 26, 1873].
Sam Hunter. Alex Katz. New York, 1992, p. 31, notes that it inspired Alex Katz's "Upside Down Ada" (1965, Museum of Modern Art, New York).
Daniel Arasse. Le détail: Pour une histoire rapprochée de la peinture. Paris, 1992, pp. 237–39, 283 n. 356, fig. 224, notes that the detail of the piece of clothing depicted at bottom right shocked those with conventional or puritanical notions of good taste, since undressed women, as opposed to nudes, were then associated with prostitutes.
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. 184–85, 195–97, 301, 328 n. 253, p. 330 nn. 278–79, p. 340 n. 400.
Susan Alyson Stein inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 210, 223, 253, figs. 103, 106, publishes installation photographs of Exhs New York 1919 and 1930.
Gary Tinterow inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 21–22, 33, colorpl. 19.
Gretchen Wold inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 316–17, no. A145, ill.
Henri Loyrette inOrigins of Impressionism. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, pp. xiii, 98, 101, 104, 109–12, 212, 296, 315, 361–63, 410, no. 45, ill. p. 361, fig. 148 (color) [French ed., Paris], states that Courbet "appropriated" this nude from Gleyre's "The Dance of the Bacchantes" (1849; Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne); discusses the Nieuwerkerke scandal in detail.
Michael Kimmelman. "At the Met with Hans Haacke: Peering at a Wide World Beyond Works on a Wall." New York Times (December 9, 1994), p. C32, reports that Haacke relates this painting to Cabanel's "Birth of Venus" (MMA 94.24.1) and to Marcel Duchamp's "Étant Donnés" (Philadelphia Museum of Art).
Pierre Georgel. Courbet: Le Poème de la nature. Paris, 1995, pp. 101–2, fig. 102h (color), remarks that the pose of the figure recalls Cabanel's "Birth of Venus" (Musée d'Orsay, Paris).
Albert Kostenevich. Hidden Treasures Revealed: Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Exh. cat.New York, 1995, pp. 37–38, 40–41, ill., asserts that Courbet's "Reclining Woman" (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg) clearly precedes this picture, although it is not a study for it.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 426, ill.
Alan Krell. Manet and the Painters of Contemporary Life. London, 1996, pp. 81–82, fig. 73 (detail).
Fred Leeman in Fred Leeman and Hanna Pennock. Museum Mesdag: Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings. Amsterdam, 1996, p. 143.
Jacqueline Lichtenstein. "'Manette Salomon’ ou le roman de la fin de l’art." 48/14: La revue du Musée d’Orsay no. 3 (September 1996), p. 70.
James H. Rubin. Courbet. London, 1997, pp. 204–5, 207, 212, 251, 325, fig. 126.
Jörg Zutter inCourbet: Artiste et promoteur de son œuvre. Ed. Jörg Zutter and Petra ten-Doesschate Chu. Exh. cat., Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne. Paris, 1998, pp. 25, 31, 34, 75, 81, 104, fig. 22.
Michael Kimmelman. Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere. New York, 1998, pp. 224–25, ill. p. 156 [text similar to Kimmelman 1994].
Bernard Vouilloux. Le Tableau vivant: Phyrné, l'orateur et le peintre. Paris, 2002, pp. 306, 316, 440 n. 102, pl. 100.
Valérie Bajou. Courbet. Paris, 2003, pp. 10, 119, 185, 217, 288, 309, 326, 328–30, 338, 341–42, 401 n. 16, p. 408 n. 30, p. 418 n. 64, ill. (color).
Frances Suzman Jowell. "Thoré-Bürger's Art Collection: 'A Rather Unusual Gallery of Bric-à-Brac'." Simiolus 30, no. 1/2 (2003), pp. 74, 103, notes that the Hermitage "Reclining Woman" (F527) was listed as a study for this picture in the 1870 sale of Thoré's collection.
Ross King. The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism. New York, 2006, p. 181.
Gary Tinterow inThe Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, fig. 16 (installation photo, color).
Kathryn Calley Galitz inThe Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 47–48, 201–2, no. 28, ill. (color and black and white).
Linda Nochlin. Courbet. New York, 2007, pp. 15, 17.
Petra ten-Doesschate Chu. The Most Arrogant Man in France: Gustave Courbet and the Nineteenth-Century Media Culture. Princeton, 2007, pp. 134–35, 137, 142, 209 nn. 91, 92, fig. 104 (color), remarks that it "was a calculated move to trick the government into awarding him a medal or even a Legion of Honor cross, just so that he could refuse it".
Michèle Haddad. Gustave Courbet: Peinture et histoire. Sainte-Croix, 2007, pp. 94, 141, 199, 205.
Kathryn Calley Galitz inMasterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 58, 235, no. 55, ill. (color and black and white).
Tamar Garb. The Painted Face: Portraits of Women in France 1814–1914. New Haven, 2007, pp. 65–66, 73–74, 257 nn. 18, 30, colorpl. 60, discusses the relationship of the painting's parrot to that in Manet's "Young Lady in 1866" (MMA 89.21.3) and its beak to the nose of the sitter in Manet's "Portrait of Mlle. E. G." (1870, National Gallery, London).
Ségolène Le Men. Courbet. Paris, 2007, pp. 223, 242, 245, 248, 253, 341, 381 nn. 111, 113, figs. 198 (color), 199 (Petit caricature), compares the abstracted parrot's perch to the streetlamp in the artist's "Firemen Running to a Fire" (1850–51, Musée du Petit Palais, Paris); calls the painting a counterpart to Fuseli's "Nightmare" (1781, Detroit Institute of Arts).
Bernard Teyssèdre. Le roman de l'origine. rev., enl. ed. [1st ed., 1996]. [Paris], 2007, pp. 51–54, 56, 59, 61, 71–72, 87, 122–24, 153, 336, 349, 372–73, 505–6, states that Courbet's model could not have been Joanna Hiffernan since she was not yet in Paris in March of 1866; compares the subject to Freud's images of castration in his "Medusa's Head" (1922).
19th Century European Paintings. Sotheby's, London. June 27, 2007, pp. 240, 242–43, under no. 222, fig. 1 (color).
Laurence des Cars inGustave Courbet. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2008, pp. 367–71, 380, no. 179, ill. (color) [French ed., Paris, 2007].
Kathryn Calley Galitz inGustave Courbet. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2008, p. 315 [French ed., Paris, 2007].
Dominique de Font-Réaulx inGustave Courbet. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2008, pp. 339, 351, 356, 363 n. 1, pp. 372, 376 [French ed., Paris, 2007].
Dominique Lobstein inGustave Courbet. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2008, pp. 437–38, 440, 451 [French ed., Paris, 2007].
Aruna D'Souza. Cézanne's Bathers: Biography and the Erotics of Paint. University Park, Pa., 2008, pp. x, 54, fig. 28.
Paul Galvez inCourbet: A Dream of Modern Art. Ed. Klaus Herding and Max Hollein. Exh. cat., Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. Ostfildern, 2010, p. 61, fig. 4 (color).
Klaus Herding inCourbet: A Dream of Modern Art. Ed. Klaus Herding and Max Hollein. Exh. cat., Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. Ostfildern, 2010, p. 230, under no. 68, ill. (color), discusses the study for this painting (Koons collection; F528).
Stephanie Marchal inCourbet: A Dream of Modern Art. Ed. Klaus Herding and Max Hollein. Exh. cat., Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. Ostfildern, 2010, p. 240, under no. 73, p. 288.
Michèle Haddad inCourbet: A Dream of Modern Art. Ed. Klaus Herding and Max Hollein. Exh. cat., Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. Ostfildern, 2010, p. 34, states that this nude may well have conjured Cora Pearl, the "most famous courtesan of her time," for Courbet's contemporaries.
Stéphane Guégan inBirth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay. Exh. cat., de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. San Francisco, 2010, p. 93.
Michel Hilaire inRealismo(s). La huella de Courbet. Exh. cat., Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Barcelona, 2011, pp. 80–82, ill.
Sébastien Pasteur inCourbet/Clésinger, oeuvres croisées. Exh. cat., Musée Gustave Courbet. [Ornans], 2011, p. 29, states that it may have led Auguste Clésinger to paint.
Yves Sarfati inCourbet/Clésinger, oeuvres croisées. Exh. cat., Musée Gustave Courbet. [Ornans], 2011, pp. 61–68, 72–74. ill. (color), compares it to Clésinger's sculpture "Woman Bitten by a Serpent" (1847, Musée d'Orsay, Paris); calls the figure a composite (citing Courbet July 27, 1866); sees the one-sided argument Courbet had with Nieuwerkerke regarding ownership of the picture as an example of what he calls the artist's bipolar disorder; presents a psychological interpretation of the picture.
Gary Tinterow inImpressionism, Fashion, & Modernity. Ed. Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Chicago, 2012, p. 31, fig. 4 (color) [French ed., "L'Impressionnisme et la Mode," Paris, p. 44].
MaryAnne Stevens inManet: Portraying Life. Exh. cat., Toledo Museum of Art. London, 2012, p. 31.
Mark A. Roglán inNineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Ed. Sarah Lees. Williamstown, Mass., 2012, vol. 1, p. 464, under no. 200, compares it to Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta's "Woman with a Parrot" (ca. 1872, Clark Art Institute, Williamstown) and notes that Madrazo may have seen Courbet's picture in the Salon of 1866.
Stefanie Manthey and Nina Zimmer inRenoir, Between Bohemia and Bourgeoisie: The Early Years. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Ostfildern, 2012, p. 103 n. 5.
Jean-Philippe Huys inGustave Courbet et la Belgique: Réalisme de l'art vivant à l'art libre. Exh. cat., Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. Milan, 2013, pp. 64, 81, 177, fig. 41 (color).
Jeffery Howe inGustave Courbet et la Belgique: Réalisme de l'art vivant à l'art libre. Exh. cat., Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. Milan, 2013, pp. 136, 139, 143 n. 33.
Jeffery Howe inCourbet: Mapping Realism; Paintings from the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and American Collections. Ed. Jeffery Howe. Exh. cat., McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. Chestnut Hill, Mass., 2013, pp. 14–15.
Denis Coutagne inCourbet / Cézanne: La vérité en peinture. Ed. Denis Coutagne. Exh. cat., Musée Gustave Courbet, Ornans. Lyons, 2013, pp. 62, 68, fig. 2 (color), cites Vollard (1914) regarding The Met's picture supposedly having inspired Cézanne to paint his "Leda and the Swan" (ca. 1880 [possibly later], Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia) but states that it is more likely that Cézanne's inspiration actually was a different painting by Courbet.
James H. Rubin inCourbet / Cézanne: La vérité en peinture. Ed. Denis Coutagne. Exh. cat., Musée Gustave Courbet, Ornans. Lyons, 2013, pp. 58–59.
Xavier Rey inCourbet / Cézanne: La vérité en peinture. Ed. Denis Coutagne. Exh. cat., Musée Gustave Courbet, Ornans. Lyons, 2013, p. 96.
Jean Colrat. Cézanne: Joindre les mains errantes de la nature. Paris, 2013, p. 412, compares it to Cézanne's images of women with parrots.
Raphaël Abrille and Yves Sarfati. "Courbet cynégétique: De la chasse au phantasme." Transferts de Courbet. Ed. Yves Sarfati. [Dijon], 2013, pp. 186, 188, fig. 12 (color).
André Dombrowski and. Cézanne, Murder, and Modern Life. Berkeley, 2013, pp. 13–14, 16, fig. 7, states that it represents femininity as natural in contrast to Manet’s “Young Lady in 1866” (The Met, 89.21.3), which shows it as culturally defined; argues that the model's position and hair are quoted in Cézanne’s “Strangled Woman” (1875–76, Musée d’Orsay, Paris), in which the parrot has metamorphosed into a male aggressor.
Adrienne L. Childs inBlacks and Blackness in European Art of the Long Nineteenth Century. Ed. Adrienne L. Childs and Susan H. Libby. Farnham, England, 2014, p. 137.
Laurence Madeline inGustave Courbet: Les années suisses. Ed. Laurence Madeline. Exh. cat., Musée Rath, Musées d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève. Paris, 2014, p. 139.
Pierre Chessex inGustave Courbet: Les années suisses. Ed. Laurence Madeline. Exh. cat., Musée Rath, Musées d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève. Paris, 2014, p. 83.
Marnin Young. Realism in the Age of Impressionism: Painting and the Politics of Time. New Haven, 2015, fig. 131 (Paris 1882 installation photograph).
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, pp. 437–38, no. 357, ill. pp. 366, 437 (color).
Stéphane Guégan inPaul Cezanne: Le chant de la terre. Ed. Daniel Marchesseau. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2017, p. 50, notes its influence on Cézanne's "La Femme étranglée" (1875–76, Musée d'Orsay, Paris).
Pierre Bourdieu. Manet: A Symbolic Revolution. Cambridge, 2017, pp. 226, 343, 459, colorpl. 37, states that he thinks Courbet must have had Leda and the swan in mind when painting this picture.
Petra ten-Doesschate Chu inMonographic Exhibitions and the History of Art. Ed. Maia Wellington Gahtan and Donatella Pegazzano. New York, 2018, fig. 7.1 (installation photo of Paris 1882).
Isolde Pludermacher inCourbet e la natura. Exh. cat., Palazzo dei Diamanti. Ferrara, 2018, p. 72.
Barbara Guidi inCourbet e la natura. Exh. cat., Palazzo dei Diamanti. Ferrara, 2018, p. 127.
Mary Morton inCourbet e la natura. Exh. cat., Palazzo dei Diamanti. Ferrara, 2018, p. 177, as "Nudo con pappagallo".
Lidia Ferrara inThannhauser Collection: French Modernism at the Guggenheim. Ed. Megan Fontanella. New York, 2018, pp. 223, 313 nn. 6, 8.
Nicole R. Myers inRenoir: The Body, the Senses. Ed. Esther Bell and George T. M. Shackelford. Exh. cat., Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 2019, p. 76.
Leyre Bozal inBoldini y la pintura española a finales del siglo XIX: El espíritu de una época. Ed. Francesca Dini and Leyre Bozal. Exh. cat., Fundación MAPFRE. Madrid, 2019, p. 71, fig. 4 (color).
Nils Messel. The Impressionist Trail: The What, Whence, and Whither of French Masterpieces in Norway. Oslo, 2019, p. 228.
"Works in the Exhibition." Making The Met, 1870–2020. Ed. Andrea Bayer and Laura D. Corey. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2020, p. 251.
Laura D. Corey and Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen. "Visions of Collecting." Making The Met, 1870–2020. Ed. Andrea Bayer with Laura D. Corey. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2020, pp. 134, 137, 140, 265 n. 26, fig. 138 (color).
Katharine Baetjer inEuropean Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. South Brisbane, 2021, pp. 186, 189.
Paul Galvez. Courbet's Landscapes: The Origins of Modern Painting. , New Haven, 2022, pp. 129, 132, 134–35, 188 n. 3, fig. 56 (color), states that the banker Louis Lepel-Cointet had coveted the painting but settled for the landscape "Covert of Roe-Deer by the Stream of Plaisir-Fontaine" (1866, Musée d’Orsay, Paris); notes the painting's possible influence on Renoir for his "Diana" (1867, National Gallery of Art, Washington), shown at the Salon the next year.
Petra ten-Doesschate Chu. "Courbet, or Not Courbet, That is the Question." At the Source: A Courbet Landscape Rediscovered. Ed. André Dombrowski and Lynn Marsden-Atlass. Exh. cat., Arthur Ross Gallery. Pennsylvania, 2023, p. 85, fig. 9.4 (color), states that Courbet permitted Cherubino Pata to copy this painting in the late 1860s.
The reclining nude in Venus and Psyche (1864; location unknown; Fernier 1978, no. 370) was probably the prototype for Woman with a Parrot. Thoré (1866) is said to have suggested modifications to a study related to Venus and Psyche (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; F527), which then inspired The Met's picture. Two other works (Oskar Reinhart collection, Winterthur; F534 and Mesdag Museum, The Hague; F536) are closely related to the Hermitage study. A half-length painting in the Koons collection (F528) preceded The Met's picture.
Fernier (1988) reproduces a copy after The Met's picture by Courbet's student Cherubino Pata (1879; location unknown). There is also an etching after the painting by A. P. Martial in Album du Salon de 1866 and a wood engraving by F. L. Méaulle published in J. Bruno's novel Les Misères des gueux, 1872, as Isaure caressant sa perroquet.
While Fernier (1978) associates The Met's picture with Courbet's La Courtisane that was exhibited in Antwerp in 1870, it is unlikely that Woman with a Parrot was in that exhibition given its sale to Bordet that spring.
Join Asher Miller, associate curator of European Paintings, on a tour of the Department’s reinstallation of their nineteenth-century galleries, which highlights works by Gustave Courbet.
Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819–1877 La Tour-de-Peilz)
ca. 1854
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