The image of a woman with a pensive gaze, opened book, and head weighing heavily on one hand is a classic image of melancholy, as seen in works by Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), El Greco (1540/41–1614), and Camille Corot (1796–1875), among others. The head casts a prominent shadow against what appears to be a back wall, suggesting that Woman with a Book began as an interior scene. The trees and mountains at upper left were added later, producing a contradictory reading of both the pictorial space and the narrative scene.
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the artist, Paris (1909–before 1922; sold for Fr 1,000, to Vollard); [Ambroise Vollard, Paris, before 1922–24; inv. no. 1496; sold on December 12, 1924 for Fr 6,000, to de Zayas]; [Marius de Zayas, New York, from 1924]; Earl Horter, Philadelphia (by 1929/30–37; on loan to the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Philadelphia, February 11–December 1935 and March 1936–April 22, 1937; sold on November 12, 1937 for $650, to Matisse); [Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1937; stock no. 707; sold on December 16, 1937 for $1,600, to Chrysler]; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., New York (1937–38; sold on March 31, 1938 to Matisse); [Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1938; stock no. 776; sold on December 24, 1938 to Chrysler]; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., New York (1938); Lee A. Ault, New York (by 1943–49; sold on December 21, 1949 as "La liseuse" to Perls); [Perls Gallery, New York, 1949–51; inv. no. 4668; sold on May 24, 1951 for $10,000, to Windfohr]; Mrs. Robert F. Windfohr (née Anne Valliant Burnett, later Mrs. Charles D. Tandy), Fort Worth (1951–d. 1980); her daughter, Anne Burnett Windfohr (later Mrs. John L. Marion), Fort Worth (1980–97; sold in October 1997 to Lauder); Leonard A. Lauder, New York (from 1997)
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Museum of Art. "Earl Horter Collection," February 17–March 14, 1934.
Arts Club of Chicago. "Modern Paintings from the Collection of Mr. Earl Horter of Philadelphia," April 3–26, 1934, no. 45 (as "Abstract Figure, 'Negro period'").
Philadelphia Art Alliance. "African Art and Its Modern Derivatives," January 6–31, 1936 [probably this picture].
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Selected Exhibition of the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Collection," October 5–31, 1937, no. 15 (as "Woman and Landscape").
New York. Valentine Gallery. "Picasso: 21 Paintings, 1908 to 1934," November 7–26, 1938, no. 3 (as "Femme au paysage," 1910).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," November 15, 1939–January 7, 1940, no. 90 (as "Woman in a Landscape," late 1909).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," February 1–March 5, 1940, no. 90.
City Art Museum of Saint Louis. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," March 16–April 14, 1940, no. 90.
Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," April 26–May 25, 1940, no. 90.
Richmond. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," January 16–March 4, 1941, no. 161 (as "Woman and Landscape").
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," March 29–May 11, 1941, no. 161.
New York. Buchholz Gallery. "Cubism: Braque, Gris, Laurens, Léger, Lipchitz, Picasso," April 5–30, 1949, no. 35.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 124).
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Mad for Modernism: Earl Horter and His Collection," March 7–May 16, 1999, unnumbered cat. (pl. 30).
New York. PaceWildenstein. "Picasso, Braque and Early Film in Cubism," April 20–June 23, 2007, unnumbered cat. (p. 186).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection," October 20, 2014–February 16, 2015, no. 55.
Modern Paintings from the Collection of Mr. Earl Horter of Philadelphia. Exh. cat., Arts Club of Chicago. Chicago, 1934, unpaginated, no. 45.
Selected Exhibition of the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Collection. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1937, p. 5, no. 15.
Picasso: 21 Paintings, 1908 to 1934. Exh. cat., Valentine Gallery. New York, 1938, unpaginated, no. 3.
Alfred H. Barr Jr. Picasso: Forty Years of His Art. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1939, p. 71, no. 90, ill. p. 70.
Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Exh. cat., Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Richmond, 1941, p. 91, no. 161, ill.
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 2a, Works from 1906 to 1912. Paris, 1942, unpaginated (list of plates), no. 150, pl. 75, as summer 1909.
Ejler Bille. Picasso, Surrealisme, abstrakt Kunst. [Copenhagen], 1945, p. 285, ill. p. 25, as summer 1909.
Alfred H. Barr Jr. Picasso: Fifty Years of His Art. New York, 1946, pp. 66, 259, ill. p. 67, as early summer 1909.
Cubism: Braque, Gris, Laurens, Léger, Lipchitz, Picasso. Exh. cat., Buchholz Gallery. New York, 1949, unpaginated, no. 35.
Howard Devree. "Both Old and New: From the Early Renaissance to Picasso Range the New Exhibitions." New York Times (March 5, 1950), p. 104, as "La Liseuse".
Christian Zervos. "Oeuvres et images inédites de la jeunesse de Picasso." Cahiers d’art 25 (1950), ill. p. 278 (on display in Picasso's studio at 13, rue Ravignan, Paris).
William Rubin, ed. Picasso in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, including Remainder-Interest and Promised Gifts. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1972, ill. p. 14 (installed in the exhibition “Picasso: Forty Years of His Art,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1939–40).
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, 1972, p. 100, no. 258, ill. p. 99, as "Donna seduta con libro".
Françoise Cachin and Fiorella Minervino. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Picasso, 1907–1916. Paris, 1977, p. 100, no. 258, ill. p. 99, as summer 1909.
Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet. Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907–1916: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Boston, 1979, p. 235, no. 241, ill. and ill. p. 357 (on display in Picasso’s studio at 13, rue Ravignan, Paris, 1909; photograph as by the artist).
William Rubin, ed. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1989, ill. p. 124 (German ed., 1990, p. 329, revised dating as [early spring 1909], fig. 70; French ed., 1990, and Spanish ed., 1991, p. 328, revised dating as [early spring 1909]), ill. p. 118).
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: Cubism, 1907–1917. New York, 1990, p. 500, no. 351, ill. p. 125, as "Lady with Book".
Pepe Karmel. "Appendix 2: Notes on the Dating of Works." Picasso and Braque: A Symposium. Ed. Lynn Zelevansky. New York, 1992, p. 326, as early spring 1909.
Christian Geelhaar. Picasso: Wegbereiter und Förderer seines Aufstiegs, 1899–1939. Zürich, 1993, ill. p. 237, fig. 267 (installed in the exhibition “Picasso: Forty Years of His Art,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1939–40).
Anne Baldassari. Picasso photographe, 1901–1916. Exh. cat., Musée Picasso. Paris, 1994, pp. 103, 104, fig. 77 (on display in Picasso’s studio at 13, rue Ravignan, Paris; photograph as by the artist, spring 1909).
John Richardson with the collaboration of Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso. Vol. 2, 1907–1917. New York, 1996, pp. 118, 133, ill. p. 119 (on display in Picasso’s studio at 13, rue Ravignan, Paris; photograph as by the artist, 1909), as "Woman with a Book in a Landscape".
Anne Baldassari. Picasso and Photography: The Dark Mirror. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Paris, 1997, p. 66, fig. 86 (on display in Picasso’s studio at 13, rue Ravignan, Paris; photograph as by the artist, spring 1909).
Innis Howe Shoemaker, with Christa Clarke, and William Wierzbowski. Mad for Modernism: Earl Horter and His Collection. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1999, pp. 53, 63 n. 195, p. 87, ill. p. 13, fig. 3 (on display in the residence of Earl Horter, Philadelphia, ca. 1929–30), pl. 30.
Arthur I. Miller. Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time and the Beauty That Causes Havoc. New York, 2001, p. 143, fig. 5.8 (on display in Picasso’s studio at 13, rue Ravignan, Paris; photograph as by the artist, spring 1909).
Julia May Boddewyn in Michael FitzGerald. Picasso and American Art. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 2006, p. 341.
Bernice B. Rose, ed. Picasso, Braque, and Early Film in Cubism. Exh. cat., PaceWildenstein. New York, 2007, pp. 54, 186, ill. p. 52.
Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies. (video recording). Produced by Martin Scorsese and Robert Greenhut, Produced and directed by Arne Glimcher. New York: Arthouse Films, 2010, ill. (color).
John Richardson. "Cubism Steals the Show." Vanity Fair 55, no. 6 (June 2013), pp. 108–9, ill. (on display in the Sherman Fairchild Paintings Conservation Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
"Objects Promised to the Museum during the Year 2012–2013." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, One Hundred Forty-third Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013 (2013), p. 47.
Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 236.
Andrea Bayer inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 48–52, no. 55, ill. p. 50 (color).
Anna Jozefacka and Luise Mahler inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, pp. 280–81, figs. 54 (photographed in Picasso's studio in the Bateau-Lavoir at 13, rue Ravignan, Paris, 1909), 55 (on display in the residence of Earl Horter, Philadelphia, ca. 1929–30).
Emily Braun and Leonard A. Lauder inCubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Ed. Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 14, fig. 10 (installation photo, Exh. New York 1989–90).
Alan Hyman, ed. The Picasso Project: Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, and Sculpture, A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue, 1885–1973. Vol. 1909–1912, Analytic Cubism. San Francisco, 2015, pp. 29, 321, 330, no. 1909-055, ill. p. 29.
Jeremiah Evarts. "Picasso and the Modern Allegory: 1908–09." Pablo Picasso: "Femme assise," 1909. To be Included in "Impressionist & Modern Art: Evening Sale". June 21, 2016, p. 49, fig. 9 (color), as "Femme au livre".
Emily Braun. "Shadows, Shading, and Shades." The Cubism Seminars. Ed. Harry Cooper. Washington, D.C., 2017, p. 16.
Paul Rodgers. Pablo Picasso–Simon Hantaï: Drama Shared: Cubism and the Fold. New York, 2020, fig. 8 (installation photo, Exh. New York 1939–40).
Doris Kachel inBiografien der Bilder: Provenienzen im Museum Berggruen. Ed. Petra Winter, Doris Kachel, and Sven Haase. Exh. cat., Nationalgalerie Berlin, Museum Berggruen. Berlin, 2021, ill. p. 120 (on display in Earl Horter’s residence, Philadelphia, ca. 1929–30).
Teen Advisory Group Member Brooke explores the techniques used by the Cubist artists whose work is on display in the exhibition Cubism: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection.
The ninth-annual Women and the Critical Eye program featuring a conversation between Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow, who discuss Leonard Lauder's criteria for collecting, including the importance of the "aesthetic wow," rarity, state of conservation, and attention to a work's curriculum vitae.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
