4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2010.

Une Japonaise (The Language of the Fan)

Artist Jules Joseph Lefebvre (French, 1836 - 1912)

CultureFrench

Date1882

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions51 1/2 x 35 1/2 in. (130.8 x 90.2 cm)
Overall, Frame: 69 3/8 x 53 1/4 x 6 1/4 in. (176.2 x 135.3 x 15.9 cm)

InscribedSigned lower left: Jules Lefebvre

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.2058

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 217

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. It is a three-quarter length standing portrait of a woman in front of a wooden door and green painted balustrade. In the distance there seems to be a body of water and mountains. A pale pink four petaled flower grows through the balustrade in the left foreground. She wears a red robe decorated with flowers. She has a plum colored sash tied around her hips and waist. Her hair and eyes are dark brown to black. Her hair is pulled tight on her head, with a flurry of curls at the edges, decorated with flowers and ornamental combs. She has smooth skin and an oval face. She holds on open red fan in her right hand, the edge of which is lodged between her teeth. Her left is resting on her hip, with a small gold ring on her pinky finger.

Label TextJules-Joseph Lefebvre French, 1836–1911 Une Japonaise (The Language of the Fan), 1882 Oil on canvas Holding a red fan that matches her brilliant kimono and wearing blossoms in her hair, this coy European beauty is playing dress-up in traditional Japanese garb. France was swept up in Le Japonisme—the craze for all things Japanese—in the mid-1800s, after the American naval officer Matthew Perry reestablished trade relations between Japan and the West in 1854. Inspired by the trend, academic artists like Jules-Joseph Lefebve created seductive images like this one of playful and exotic women. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2058 ProvenanceSchauss; M. Cottier Gallery, New York; Sale, New York, May 27 - 28, 1892; James S. Inglis, New York; Sale, American Art Association, New York, Mendelssohn Hall, March 11- 12, 1909 (cat. no. 98); Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition History"Art Pompier: Anti-Impressionism, 19th Century French Salon Painting," The Emily Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University, New York, Oct. 22 - Dec. 15, 1974. (Exhib. cat. no. 64). "French Salon Paintings from Southern Collections," The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Jan. 21 - March 3, 1983; The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, April 1 - May 22, 1983; The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, June 25 - Aug. 21, 1983; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Sept. 15 - Oct. 28, 1983. (Exhib. cat. no. 49). "Paris 1889: American Artists at the Universal Exposition," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, Sept. 29 - Dec. 17, 1989; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Feb. 1 - April 15, 1990; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, TN, May 6 - July 15, 1990; New York Historical Society, NYC, Sept. 5 - Nov. 15, 1990. "Overcoming All Obstacles: The Women of the Academie Julian," Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Oct. 2,1999 - Jan. 2, 2000; The Dahesh Museum (NYC), Jan. 18 - May 13, 2000; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, July 9 - Sept. 24, 2000. "Picturing French Style: Three Hundred Years of Art and Fashion," Mobile Museum of Art, AL, Sept. 6, 2002--Jan. 12, 2003; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, Feb. 1--April 27, 2003. "A Revolution in Paint," North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, September 17, 2006 - February 11, 2007. "Masterworks from the Chrysler Museum," North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, April 9, 2013 - February 2, 2014. “West Meets East, East Meets West: Cross-Cultural Encounter in Fashion and Art around 1900," Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan, April 15 – June 25, 2017. "Keepers of the Flame: Parrish, Wyeth, Rockwell and the Narrative Tradition," Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA, June 9 - October 28, 2018. Published ReferencesEric M. Zafran, with an introductory essay by Gerald M. Ackerman. _French Salon Paintings from Southern Collections_. Atlanta, GA: The High Museum of Art. 1982. No. 49. Gary Levine, Robert R. Preato, and Francine Tyler. _La Femme: The Influence of Whistler and Japanese Print Masters on American Art, 1880-1917_. New York: Grand Central Art Galleries, Inc. 1983: 42, ill. Thomas E. Norton, foreword by Douglas Dillon. _100 Years of Collecting in America: The Story of Sotheby Parke Bernet_. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. 1984. Jefferson C. Harrison. "Nineteenth-Century French Art - Part I," _The Chrysler Museum Gallery Guide_. Norfolk, VA: Chrysler Museum. 1985: p. 7, no. 17. Exhibition catalogue. _Japonisme_. Paris: Galeries nationale du Grand Palais. 1988:65, fig. 201. Annette Blaugrund, Albert Boime, D. Dodge Thompson, H. Barbara Weinberg, and Richard Guy Wilson. _Paris 1889: American Artists at the Universal Exposition_. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, in association with Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. 1989: 248-249. Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum. 1991. 148, plate 116. New History of World Art Series. _Impressionism_. Volume 22. Tokyo: Shogakukan Inc. 1993: 292, no. 178. _Japonism in Fashion_. Kyoto: Kyoto Costume Institute, 1994, 206, ill. in b/w. Essays by Gabriel P. Weisberg and Jennifer L. Shaw, with introductory statements by Scott M. Black, Daniel O'Leary and Carrie Haslett,_Paris and the Countryside: Modern Life in Late - 19th - Century France_, exh. cat., Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, 2006, 13-14, 34. Eric M. Zafran, "Norfolk's Salon Masterworks Shine Again," _Fine Art Connoisseur_, November-December 2014, 51. Yokohama Museum of Art and The Kyoto Costume Institute, _The Elegant Other: Cross-cultural Encounters in Fashion and Art_, (Japan: Rikuyosha, 2017), fig. 120, page 85.