Portrait of a Lady on the Champs-Elysées
Artist
George Vaughan Curtis
(English, 1856-1943)
CultureEnglish
Date1893
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 36 1/2 x 28 13/16 in. (92.7 x 73.2 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated at lower right: "George Curtis 1893 Paris"
Credit LineIn memory of Marcia Weinberg by Alexander and Nancy Weinberg von Auersperg. Museum purchase with funds provided by the Annie Laurie Aitken Lead Trust and the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Art Purchase Fund
Object number99.20
Collections
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 218
Label TextGeorge Vaughan Curtis English, 1856–1943 Portrait of a Lady on the Champs-Elysées, 1893 Oil on canvas This picture is a fashion plate—a careful and detailed illustration of the latest style in 1893 Paris. At the same time, however, the artist has set his subject within a dynamic composition that captures the mood of late 19th-century Parisian life. Our eyes move from the main figure with her purple boutonnière, to the woman in lavender at the left, and then down the Champs-Elysees to the distant Arc de Triomphe—at every turn, another scene to behold. From beneath her veil, the self-possessed woman at center returns our gaze, seemingly aware that she is on view while reminding viewers that they are being eyed, too. Museum purchase with funds provided by the Annie Laurie Aitken Lead Trust and by Alexander and Nancy Weinberg von Auersperg, in memory of Marcia Weinberg 99.20 ProvenanceBerry-Hill Galleries, New York, 1987; Masco collection, Minneapolis; sale, Sotheby's, New York, December 3, 1998, no. 71; Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1998-99. Exhibition History"Paris 1890: The Art of Modern Life," Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan, February 14 - May 18, 2003. Published ReferencesJeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 44, fig. 42. ISBN: 978-0-940744-72-1
