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John Oliver Hand, “François Clouet/A Lady in Her Bath/c. 1571,” French Paintings of the Fifteenth through Eighteenth Centuries, NGA Online Editions, https://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/46112 (accessed March 19, 2024).

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Overview

François Clouet, the son of a Netherlandish artist, became court painter to the French kings Francis I, Henry II and Charles IX. In this Renaissance portrait Clouet has depicted a female nude, whose identity is unknown, at her bath. The bather is seated in her tub, which is lined with a white cloth and hung on both sides with regal crimson curtains to ward off the cold. Her left hand draws back the bath sheet revealing the artist's name inscribed below, while her right hand rests on a covered board that displays a sumptuously rendered still life. Slightly behind the bather a young boy reaches for some grapes as a smiling wet nurse suckles a baby. In the background, a maid is seen holding a metal pitcher of bath water as more water is heated in the fireplace. The allusion is to a happy, healthy home.

The masklike symmetry of the bather's face makes exact identification difficult; scholars have suggested that her aristocratic features indicate that she is one of several royal mistresses. It is possible that the nude, a Venus type, represents ideal beauty rather than a specific individual. The contrast of the smoothly rendered nude figure to the intricate surface details of the fruit, draperies, and jewelry, presents a union of Flemish and Italian motifs that characterized French courtly art of the sixteenth century.

Entry

One of only two signed paintings by François Clouet, A Lady in Her Bath is a work of superb quality and a monument in the history of sixteenth-century French painting. Although the artist’s signature was noted as early as 1874, the attribution to Clouet was challenged briefly in 1904 when Henri Bouchot cataloged the painting as possibly by François Quesnel (French, 1543 - 1619).[1] Since then, Clouet’s authorship has been virtually undoubted.

In the foreground of the painting, framed by two swags of red drapery, a woman is seated in a bathtub. She is naked except for her jewelry[2] and what is apparently a bathing cap made of what appears to be velvet and a sheer white fabric edged in gold. She holds a dianthus, or pink, in her right hand. The bathtub is lined with a white cloth, and at the left a board, also covered with a white cloth, supports a bowl of fruit. Around the foot of the bowl are scattered herbs, fruit, and flowers. In the shallow middle ground a young boy reaches for the fruit in the bowl, and at the left a woman nurses an infant in swaddling clothes. Her ruddy complexion and coarse, animated features are in vivid contrast to the ivory skin and cool, idealized beauty of the woman in the tub.

In the background a female servant holding a large pitcher stands in front of a roaring fire, and one can imagine that her job is to provide a supply of hot water for the bath. Interestingly, her pose echoes that of the nursemaid. A landscape painting is set into the mantel of the fireplace, but only the lower left corner is visible. Behind and to the left of the servant is a chair whose back bears the embroidered image of a unicorn sitting underneath a tree. A framed mirror hangs above the chair. The window at the far left opens onto a tree set against the sky.

The limited number of pictures, almost all portraits, that can be given securely to Clouet makes it difficult to establish a cogent sense of stylistic development for his oeuvre. A Lady in Her Bath has, with a few exceptions, been placed either in the 1550s or around 1571.[3] The identification of the sitter has been a determining factor for date, especially by those who see her as Diane de Poitiers (1499–1566), duchesse de Valentinois and mistress of Henri II. Setting identification aside for the moment, and considering style and, to an extent, fashion, a good case may be made for a date around 1571, as Louis Dimier first proposed in 1904 and in 1925.[4] Perhaps the strongest comparison is with Clouet’s portrait of Elizabeth of Austria (1554–1592) (Paris, Musée du Louvre), which is datable on the basis of the preparatory drawing (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale), inscribed 1571 on the reverse.[5] The silken, almost translucent modeling of skin tones, especially evident in Elizabeth’s hands, finds a counterpart in A Lady in Her Bath, as does the fluent, meticulous description of fabrics and jewels. The hairstyles of both women are virtually identical, but without knowing how long this style was fashionable it is hard to gauge its importance as an indicator of date.[6]

Comparisons with Clouet’s paintings from the 1550s and 1560s are neither convincing nor particularly instructive. For example, in the portrait of Pierre Quthe (1599–c. 1588) (Paris, Musée du Louvre), dated 1562, the striking flashes of highlights on the drapery swag at the left create a surface effect akin to metallic foil or cellophane, very different from the subtler textures of the draperies in the National Gallery of Art panel.[7]

As to the possible identity of the sitter, the three candidates most often proposed are Diane de Poitiers, Mary Stuart (1542–1587), and Marie Touchet (1549–1638). Traditionally the woman in the tub has been identified as Diane de Poitiers. The source of this identification seems to be Georges Guiffrey’s publication of 1866 in which he describes and discusses a painting in the Musée de Versailles by Henri Lehmann (1814–1882), then called “after Primaticcio,” but in fact a copy after the Gallery’s picture.[8] Guiffrey suggested that the sitter was not Gabrielle d’Estrées but Diane de Poitiers and that the two children depicted were those of Henri II, who would have been guarded and educated by the royal mistress. In the earliest known publication of A Lady in Her Bath, the sales catalog of 1874, the sitter is identified as Diane de Poitiers, and the Gallery retained this appellation with implied doubt until 1999.[9]

Most who identify the sitter as Diane de Poitiers also accept a date sometime in the 1550s for the painting or place it before Henri II’s death in 1559.[10] The infant in swaddling was thus identified with Henri’s son, Charles, the future Charles IX, born in 1550, while the older boy could represent the dauphin François, born in 1544. The identification strained the bounds of credibility for some critics who, while acknowledging that Diane was renowned for her nearly ageless beauty, pointed out that in 1550 she would have been about fifty-one years old.[11]

Because of her power, influence, and patronage of the arts there are numerous works that purport to represent Diane de Poitiers, but most are either allegorical or unverified.[12] Portrait drawings would, however, seem to give the most direct, accurate evidence of her appearance. Sometimes attributed to Clouet, a drawing (Chantilly, Musée Condé) inscribed “La Duchesse de Valentinois” is usually dated around 1550.[13] A second drawing, also in Chantilly and inscribed “La gran senechalle,” is generally accepted as a depiction of Diane around 1535.[14] Comparing these faces with that of the woman in the Gallery’s painting, one does not recognize the distinctive aspects of Diane de Poitiers’s physiognomy, but instead one is struck by the high degree to which the woman’s face is idealized.

There are other reasons for eliminating Diane de Poitiers as a candidate. First, as Albert Pomme de Mirimonde observed, A Lady in Her Bath contains none of the usual symbols, such as the crescent moon of the goddess Diana, or the colors black and white associated with Diane de Poitiers.[15] Second, there is the question of date. If, as seems likely, the painting dates to c. 1571, it seems unlikely that it would represent Diane, who died in 1566 and whose prestige and influence derived in large part from that of Henri II, who died even earlier, in 1559. Further, as demonstrated by Sheila Ffolliott, Henri’s widow Catherine de’ Medici (1519–1589) immediately took steps to aggrandize her power as regent and at the same time to eclipse that of her former rival, Diane de Poitiers.[16]

Roger Trinquet and Jean Ehrmann date A Lady in Her Bath to 1570/1571 and identify the sitter as Mary Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots).[17] The painting is interpreted as a political allegory of satire against Mary and commissioned by a member of the Huguenot faction in France, possibly François, maréchal de Montmorency. Mary Stuart was in France from 1548 until mid-August of 1561, when she sailed for Scotland following the death of her husband François II on December 5, 1560. Two drawings, both in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, and both attributed to Clouet, are regarded as authentic images of Mary, Queen of Scots. One of the drawings is dated about 1555, while the second, showing Mary in white mourning dress, may be dated between 1559 and 1561.[18] A second drawing of Mary in mourning dress (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Art Museum) is also attributed to Clouet.[19]

Although the sitter’s face in A Lady in Her Bath is highly idealized, the oval shape and slightly prominent chin might be compared to the visage in the drawings of Mary Stuart as a widow. Properly cautious, Colin Eisler nonetheless found much to recommend this identification.[20] To my mind, however, this hypothesis is severely weakened by Trinquet’s and Ehrmann’s iconographic analysis, which strains to associate objects in the painting with Mary Stuart. For example, the black bands around the infant in swaddling are seen as a reference to the cross of Saint Andrew and hence to Scotland. The young boy is associated with Mary’s son James, born in 1566; his gesture of reaching for grapes symbolizes his desire for the Scottish throne. The unicorn in the background is interpreted as a multiple allusion to Mary Stuart and her second husband, Lord Darnley, who was murdered in 1567. Further, the unicorn and the pink held by the sitter, symbols of purity and fidelity, are here interpreted as a satirical comment on Mary’s many affairs and lack of virtue.

The suggestion that the sitter might be Marie Touchet, mistress to Charles IX, was first put forward by Dimier and more strongly endorsed by Irene Adler.[21] Several subsequent authors have accepted this possibility along with a late date for the painting.[22] Unfortunately, there are no documented images of Marie Touchet. A drawing in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, presumed to depict her, is dated around 1574 and shows no points of resemblance to the woman in the Gallery’s painting.[23]

There does not seem to be enough visual or documentary evidence to permit identification of the sitter as any of the three women discussed above. The possibility that A Lady in Her Bath is wholly allegorical or symbolic should not be precluded, but from the somewhat awkward way the head is joined to the body it would seem that a specific person was depicted. Because of the abstract canon of beauty imposed on this woman’s face, it may never be possible to identify her with certainty.

The pictorial and cultural antecedents of this painting are many and varied, and a recounting of sources is useful in establishing a context for possible interpretations. A number of authors have observed that the pose of the woman in the bathtub was derived from a composition by Leonardo da Vinci (Florentine, 1452 - 1519) known as the Monna Vanna, which depicted the mistress of Giuliano de’ Medici.[24] Leonardo’s original is lost, but it is known through two works by followers: a drawing[25] and a painting sometimes attributed to Francesco Melzi (Italian, 1493 - c. 1570). The woman’s torso is positioned more frontally in the painted version than in the drawing and therefore is more of a prototype for the pose in the Gallery’s painting. Leonardo’s Monna Vanna, shown nude in half-length and facing the viewer, essentially established the format and type for portrayals of courtesans and mistresses and was emulated in Italy, France, and northern Europe.[26] In addition to A Lady in Her Bath, the presence in France of Leonardo’s composition in some form may be inferred from a painting attributed to Joos van Cleve (Netherlandish, active 1505/1508 - 1540/1541) (location unknown),[27] probably dating to Joos’s sojourn in France and to its somewhat more diffused influence on paintings showing women at their toilet by anonymous artists of the School of Fontainebleau. It should also be mentioned that a related depiction of a mistress, La Fornarina (Rome, Galleria Nazionale, Palazzo Barberini) by Raphael (Marchigian, 1483 - 1520), engendered a copy by an artist of the School of Fontainebleau (Atlanta, High Museum of Art).[28] Moreover, Lorne Campbell sees in the pose of the woman in the Gallery’s picture the influence of Raphael’s Joanna of Aragon (Paris, Musée du Louvre), which was painted as a gift for François I and presumably could have been seen by Clouet.[29] The example and influence of Leonardo’s Monna Vanna underscore the notion that A Lady in Her Bath represents a mistress or courtesan.

In France, as elsewhere in Europe, attitudes toward baths and bathing varied considerably in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Baths were at once regarded as healthy and hygienic and as centers for merrymaking, drinking, and licentious behavior. While the public steam bath was at times condemned as a gathering place for prostitutes, a private bath in one’s home, as seen here, was a luxury reserved for the privileged and noble few.[30] Contemporary paintings and prints depict both rectangular tubs lined with white cloth, similar to the one in this painting, and round tubs.[31] The presence of draperies in several of these representations suggests that they may have been an integral part of the bath as devices to protect the bather from chilly drafts.

It should also be noted that a suite of rooms—three baths and three “rest” rooms and a vestibule, forming an “appartement des Bains”—was part of François I’s residence at Fontainebleau. Documents indicate that in addition to having stucco work and painted ceilings, the nonbathing rooms were decorated with paintings from the king’s collection. These baths were built in conscious emulation of antique baths, and this revived classicism may suggest a context for viewing the Gallery’s painting.[32]

The influence of Titian (Venetian, 1488/1490 - 1576) has also been cited in regard to A Lady in Her Bath. The motif of the servant in the background performing a domestic chore is seen as deriving from such paintings as the Venus of Urbino (Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi), while the use of background draperies in this and other paintings by Clouet is thought to derive from Titian’s full-length portrait of Charles V (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado).[33] A Lady in Her Bath also shows affinities to the highly polished surfaces and icy eroticism of An Allegory of Venus and Cupid (London, National Gallery) by Agnolo Bronzino (Florentine, 1503 - 1572), possibly the painting Giorgio Vasari (Florentine, 1511 - 1574) described as belonging to François I.[34]

Italian mannerist style and iconography were an essential part of the French court in the persons of Rosso Fiorentino (Florentine, 1494 - 1540) and Francesco Primaticcio (Italian, 1504 - 1570), who were formative influences on the artists of the School of Fontainebleau. As a court artist, Clouet would have been familiar with the works produced by this group, and several paintings of A Lady at Her Toilet from the School of Fontainebleau have often been associated with A Lady in Her Bath. Paintings by anonymous artists in the museums of Dijon, Basel, and Worcester, Massachusetts, depict a woman facing right and wearing only jewelry and a transparent peignoir.[35] She sits at a table bearing jewels, flowers, and a mirror supported by naked figures. In the background a servant kneels in front of an open chest. The content of these paintings, like that of the Gallery’s painting, is open to multiple interpretations centering on luxury, eroticism, and Venus.

The relationship of this set of images to A Lady in Her Bath is provocative but not wholly clear. Particularly intriguing is Charles Sterling’s belief that these paintings are replicas of a lost Clouet, painted around 1560, that was a pendant to A Lady in Her Bath.[36] Although it may never be proved or disproved, this suggestion is appealing at first glance, especially given the compositional symmetry and related subject matter. There are, however, problems in reconciling the dates of the pictures. The paintings in Dijon, Basel, and Worcester are not dated, and while c. 1560 has been proposed, it is possible that some or all could be as late as c. 1585/1590.[37] Moreover, to accept a date of c. 1560 for A Lady in Her Bath means finding it similar to the portrait of Pierre Quthe (Paris, Musée du Louvre) of 1562. Although it is hard to see the depictions of A Lady at Her Toilet as convincingly congruent with the Gallery’s picture, these paintings underscore the connections between the imagery of the School of Fontainebleau and that used by Clouet.

Several authors have observed the influence of sixteenth-century Netherlandish art in A Lady in Her Bath, calling attention to the robust, earthy nursemaid and the foreground still life.[38] Joos van Cleve—who, as mentioned above, painted a version of Leonardo’s Monna Vanna while at court—is often cited, but Quentin Massys (Netherlandish, 1466 - 1530) and Marinus van Reymerswaele (c. 1490–1567) have also been mentioned as influences. Charles Cuttler compared the boy reaching for the fruit with the children and still-life elements present in Family Portrait (Kassel, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen) by Maerten van Heemskerck (Netherlandish, 1498 - 1574) and the background of the painting with the interiors of Pieter Aertsen’s (1507/1508–1575) pictures.[39]

The combination of Italian and Netherlandish influence to be seen in A Lady in Her Bath illustrates the common view that the art of France mirrors its geographic location between Italy and the north of Europe. Particularly vexing is the issue of meaning or interpretation, and I have not found a satisfying, coherent, and convincing iconographic program that includes all the objects in A Lady in Her Bath. As a depiction of a beautiful woman, the painting may be considered as part of the Petrarchan verbal and visual tradition of praising and describing the attractiveness of women (especially courtesans or mistresses) within the framework of courtly, idealized love.[40] Jillian Bradshaw and Dorothy M. Jones see the flowers, fruit, and even the white cloth lining the bath as Petrarchan metaphors for the loveliness of the sitter.[41] Mythological associations are inevitable. Both here and in other images of women bathing, Hidemichi Tanaka sees allusions to Venus and the sea, with the painting becoming an expression of the philosopher Marsilio Ficino’s (1433–1499) neoplatonism in France.[42] Bradshaw and Jones mention not only Venus and Diana in connection with the Gallery’s picture, but also Bathsheba and Susanna, both biblical examples of a bathing woman involved in stories of lust and passion.[43] They then make a rather astonishing leap to propose symbolic associations with the Holy Family. The young woman in the bath and the wet-nurse are compared to the Virgin and Saint Anne, respectively. For Bradshaw and Jones the nursing child calls to mind the Christian virtue of caritas, which can be merged with Venus’s erotic love or even with cupiditas, its opposite.[44]

The contradictions inherent in this approach do, however, illustrate the difficulties of assigning a single, specific meaning to objects. For example, the mirror on the back wall can be interpreted as an attribute of Venus, an emblem of vanitas, an allusion to self-knowledge, or a symbol of sight as one of the five senses.[45] Beneath the mirror is an image of a unicorn, a symbol of purity and virginity[46] that is difficult to reconcile with what may be the depiction of a mistress.

Similarly, divergent or even conflicting interpretations are possible for the fruit, flowers, and herbs on the board over the bathtub. The bowl contains a pear, an apple, what may be a quince, cherries, and a bunch of grapes. Together they call up notions of ripeness, sensuality, and the sense of taste, all ideas that are appropriate to the setting, but it is also possible to invest the apple, grapes, and cherries with religious connotations.[47] The flowers have been identified as bird’s-foot violet to the immediate left of the sitter’s hand, two strawflowers further to the left, and above her hand an unidentified species of white rose.[48] While I am not aware of the meaning of the strawflowers, multiple interpretations of the violet and the rose are possible.[49] To the left of the fruit bowl are sprigs of rosemary, oregano, and juniper. While juniper and rosemary have symbolic value, all three herbs could have been aromatics added to the bathwater to make it fragrant.[50]

The pink held by the woman also has multiple meanings. In northern Europe from the late fifteenth century onward, the flower was an emblem of engagement or marriage and, by extension, alluded to purity, virginity, and fidelity.[51] For James Snyder the painting thus became a depiction of the “mistress as bride.”[52] The pink was also associated with Christ and the Virgin and with the passion of Christ.[53] Eisler cleverly suggested that Clouet used the flower as a rebus, or visual pun, on his name; in Dutch the pink is called “nail flower” (nagelbloem), and clou, nail in French, would be a homonym for Clouet.[54] If this is a reference to the artist’s name, it is a unique occurrence. In the absence of a viable overall iconographic program it is unwise, I think, to insist on any specific meaning for the pink.

A copy of A Lady in Her Bath (Chantilly, Musée Condé) is usually assigned to an anonymous French artist working around 1600, and the sitter is identified as Gabrielle d’Estrées.[55] The composition differs from the Gallery’s panel in certain details, such as the bouquets of flowers pinned to the drapery or the grisaille over the fireplace. These motifs occur in other full copies (Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs;[56] London, art market, 1982[57]), in Henri Lehmann’s copy (Château d’Azay le Rideau, Musée de la Renaissance, on deposit from the Musée de Versailles),[58] and in a partial copy showing the nursemaid and the servant with a pitcher (Naples, Museo di Capodimonte).[59] Other details, in particular the arrangement of fruit, flowers, and herbs, are closer to A Lady in Her Bath, suggesting that the Chantilly painting was as well known as Clouet’s original. The nursemaid, in reverse, and the servant girl appear in a painting, Femmes Nues au Bain (Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts),[60] attributed to a French artist working at the end of the sixteenth century. In addition, copies were made of the left half of A Lady in Her Bath[61] and of the nursemaid and child;[62] the present location of both paintings is, however, unknown.

 

This text was previously published in Philip Conisbee et al., French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century, The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue (Washington, DC, 2009), 115–122.

Collection data may have been updated since the publication of the print volume. Additional light adaptations have been made for the presentation of this text online.

John Oliver Hand

January 1, 2009

Inscription

lower center on edge of bathtub: FR.IANETII.OPVS

Provenance

Sir Richard Frederick, 6th bt. [1780-1873], Burwood Park, Walton-on-Thames, Surry; (his estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 7 February 1874, no. 83, as Portrait of Diane de Poictiers[sic] by Fr. Janetii); purchased by Thibeaudeau,[1] presumably acting as agent for Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London; purchased 1874 by Sir Francis Cook, 1st bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey;[2] by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset; sold July 1954 to (Margaret Drey, London);[3] (Rosenberg and Stiebel, New York);[4] purchased May 1955 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1961 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1894
Fair Women [Summer Exhibition], Grafton Galleries, London, 1894, no. 20, as Portrait of Diane de Poitiers, Duchesse de Valentinois.
1904
Exposition des primitifs français, Palais du Louvre and Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1904, no. 226, as Portrait d'une dame au bain by François Quesnel?
1911
Exhibition of Old Masters in Aid of the National Art Collections Fund, Grafton Galleries, London, 1911, no. 85, repro. as Portrait of Diane de Poitiers.
1932
Exhibition of French Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1932, no. 53, repro., as Dame au Bain.
1933
Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of French Art, 1200 – 1900. (Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts.) London, 1933: 15-16, no. 49, pl. 21.
1944
Masterpieces from the Cook Collection, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, 1944-1945, no. 426, repro., as Portrait of Diane de Poitiers.
1947
Loan for display with permanent collection, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Univerity of Cambridge, England, 1947-1954.
1955
Le triomphe du maniérisme européen de Michel-Ange au Greco. Entries by Charles Sterling. (Exh. cat. Rijksmuseum.) Amsterdam, 1955: 57, no. 34, 67, no. 52.
1965
Le xvi e siècle européen. Peintures et dessins dans les collections publiques françaises. Entries by Sylvie Béguin. (Exh. cat. Petit Palais.) Paris, 1965: 59, 61, no. 74, 277, no. 338.
1972
L’ école de Fontainebleau. Entries by Sylvie Béguin. (Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais.) Paris, 1972: 54, no. 54, 214, no. 242, 215, no. 243, 220, no. 246.
1973
Fontainebleau. Art in France 1528 – 1610. (Exh. cat. National Gallery of Canada.) Ottawa, 1973: 2:39.
1992
Sixteenth-Century Renaissance Painting. Vol. 2: A Reading and Viewing of Famous Paintings. Tokyo, 1992: 123-125, repro.
2019
La Joconde nue = The Nude Mona Lisa, Musée Condé, Chantilly, 2019.

Bibliography

1903
Cook, Francis. Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond. London, 1903: 6, no. 14.
1904
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1904
Durand-Gréville, Emile. "The Sixteenth Century at the Exhibition of French Primitives." The Burlington Magazine 6, no. 20 (November 1904):155, no. 226, repro. 148.
1904
Lafenestre, Georges. “L’exposition des primitifs français.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 3é pér. 32 (1904): 138-139, repro. (As “by François Quesnel?”)
1905
Reinach, Salomon. Répertoire de peintures du moyen âge et de la Renaissance (1280-1580). 6 vols. Paris, 1905-1923: 5(1922):36, fig. 2.
1907
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1915
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1920
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1923
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1924
Dimier, Louis. Histoire de la peinture de portrait en France au xvi e siècle. 3 vols. Paris and Brussels, 1924 – 1926: 1:95 – 96; 2:127, no. 13.
1924
Moreau-Nélaton, Étienne. Les Clouet et leurs émules. Paris, 1924: 1, 75, fig. 20.
1926
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1929
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1929
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1931
Babelon, Jean. "Sixteenth Century Painting in France." Formes 20 (1931): 170-171, repro.
1931
Jamot, Paul. "French Painting I." The Burlington Magazine 59 (1931): repro. facing 257.
1931
Marle, Raimond van. Iconographie de l'art profane au Moyen-Age et à la Renaissance. 2 vols. The Hague, 1931: 509.
1932
Brockwell, Maurice W. Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart. London, 1932: 7, no. 426, pl. 1.
1932
Chamot, Mary. "The Exhibition of French Art." Apollo 15, no. 85 (January 1932): 3, 5.
1932
Cox, Trenchard. "A First View of the French Exhibition." The Connoisseur 89, no. 365 (January 1932): 5-6, fig. 11.
1932
Cox, Trenchard. "A Last View of the French Exhibition." The Connoisseur 89, no. 367 (March 1932): 150.
1932
Dézarrois, André. "Chroniques. L'art français à Londres." La Revue de l'art Ancien et Moderne 61 (1932): 83-84, repro.
1932
Huyghe, René. “Du XIVe au XVIe siecle.” L’Amour de l’Art 13 (1932): 3, 8, repro., fig. 16.
1932
Jamot, Paul. "French Painting II." The Burlington Magazine 60, no. 346 (January 1932): 3.
1933
Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of French Art, 1200-1900. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, January - March 1932. Oxford and London, 1933: 15-16, no. 49., pl. 21.
1935
Ver Heyden de Lancey. "A Picture of Gabrielle d'Estrées attributed to Françios Pourbus le Jeune." The Connoisseur 96, no. 409 (September 1935): 138, repro. 139.
1936
Wilenski, Reginald H. French Painting. Boston, 1936. 2nd ed. Boston, 1949. 3rd ed. New York, 1976: 30 n. 1.
1937
Dimier, Louis. "L'Art du portrait en France au XVIe s[iècle]: François Clouet." Le Dessin 9 (March 1937): 470.
1937
Taylor, Francis Henry. "La Belle Diane: Two Portraits of the French Renaissance." Worcester Art Museum Annual 3 (1937-1938): 49.
1939
Réau, Louis. French Painting in the XIVth, XVth, and XVIth Centuries. London, Paris, New York, 1939: 33, 83, repro.
1945
Adhémar, Jean. "French Sixteenth Century Genre Paintings." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 8 (1945): 193.
1945
"The Cook Collection." The Studio 130 (1945): 25, repro.
1947
Wescher, Paul. Jean Fouquet and His Time. Trans. Eveline Winkworth. London, 1947: 20.
1948
Brion, Marcel. Lumière de la Renaissance. Paris, 1948: 154.
1949
Wilenski, Reginald H. French Painting. Boston, 1949: 31-32.
1950
Colombier, Pierre du. L'Art Renaissance en France. Paris, 1950: 90, 96, fig. 115.
1950
"Diane de Poitiers au Bain." Aesculape (October, 1950): 192, repro.
1951
Hevesy, André de. "L'Histoire véridique de la Jaconde." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6e pér., 40 (1952): 17-19, repro.
1951
Polaillon-Kerven, Gisèle. "Beautés de légend et légendes de beauté." Amour de l'Art 49-51 (1951): 29, 31, repro.
1951
Sabin, André. La Peinture française du XVIe siècle. Paris, 1951: 2.
1954
Blunt, Anthony. Art and Architecture in France: 1500 to 1700. London and Baltimore, 1954: 69-70, pl. 48; rev. ed. 1999, 73, 74, repro.
1955
Le Triomphe du maniérisme européen de Michel-Ange au Greco. Exh. cat., Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1955:57, 67, no. 34, no. 52.
1955
Murray, Linda. "The French Portrait." History Today 5, no. 9 (September 1955): 585, repro.
1955
Sterling, Charles. A Catalogue of French Paintings. 3 vols. Vol. 1, XV-XVIII Centuries, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Cambridge, Mass., 1955: 1:53-54.
1956
“Il Quindicesimo anniversario della National Gallery di Washington.” Emporium 124 (1956): 70, 71, repro.
1956
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 52-55, no. 17, repro.
1956
Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." The National Geographic Magazine 110, no. 5 (November 1956): 624, 628, color repro. 642.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): 33, 38, 43, 50, 127, frontispiece, pl. 127.
1957
"The Story Behind the Painting, 10: The Lady of the Ice-Cold Bath." Look 21, no. 6 (March 19, 1957): 100-101, color repro.
1959
Cooke, Hereward Lester. French Paintings of the 16th-18th Centuries in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Four in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 12, 13, color repro.
1959
Huebner, Fr. M. "Ein wertvoller Fund." Die Weltkunst 29 (1959): 5.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 335, repro.
1960
Béguin, Sylvie. L'Ecole de Fontainebleau. Le Maniérisme à la cour de France. Paris, 1960: 94-95, 106, repro.
1960
The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 9, color repro. 12.
1961
Babelon, Jean. La Civilisation française de la Renaissance. Tournai, 1961: 193.
1961
Blumer, Marie-Louise. "Clouet (François, dit Janet)." Dictionnaire de Biographie française 17 vols., 1933-1989. Paris, 1961: 9:38.
1961
Goldblatt, Maurice H. Deux grands maîtres français: le maître de Moulins identifié; Jean Perréal, 40 portraits identifiés. Paris, 1961: 40.
1961
Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 114-115, 209, fig. 105, color fig. 106-107.
1962
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 100, 101, color repro.
1962
Neugass, Fritz. "Die Auflösung der Sammlung Kress." Die Weltkunst 32 (1962): 3-4, repro.
1963
Châtelet, Albert, and Jacques Thuillier. French Painting from Fouquet to Poussin. Geneva, 1963: 111-112, 126, 128-130, repro.
1963
Haycraft, Robert Kenneth. “François Clouet’s Diane de Poitiers in Her Bath at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.” M.A. thesis, Johns Hopkins University, 1963.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 200, 201, repro.
1964
Guilly, R. "Clouet, François." In Kindlers Malerei Lexikon edited by Germain Bazin et al. 6 vols., 1964-1971. Zürich, 1964: 1:758-:759, repro.
1964
Mirimonde, Albert P. de. Review of La Peinture française de Fouquet à Poussin by Albert Châtelet and Jacques Thuillier. Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6e pér, no. 63 (1964): 370-371.
1965
Réunion des musées nationaux. Le XVIe siècle européen: Peintures et dessins dans les collections publiques françaises. Exh. cat. Paris, Petit Palais, October 1965-January 1966. Paris, 1965: 59, 61, 277, under no. 74 and 338.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 29.
1965
Venturi, Lionello. The Sixteenth Century, from Leonardo to El Greco. New York, 1965: 244, 245, repro.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:2882-283, color repro.
1966
Chastel, André. "Diane de Poitiers: 'L'Eros de la beauté froide'." In Friendship's Garland: Essays Presented to Mario Praz on his Seventieth Birthday. Rome, 1966: 1:101, fig. 1. (Reprinted in Fables, Formes, Figures, Paris, 1978: 1: 269-270, repro.)
1966
Sayce, R. A. “Ronsard and Mannerism: The Élégie à Janet.” L’Esprit Créateur 6, no. 4 (1966): 234-247.
1966
The Women I Love: These Lovely Immigrants Are Part of Our National Treasure.” This Week Magazine (January 9, 1966): 10, color repro.
1966
Trinquet, Roger. "L'Allégorie politique au XVIe siècle: la Dame au Bain de François Clouet (Washington)." Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français (1966): 99-119, repro.
1967
Sterling, Charles. "Un Portrait inconnue par Jean Clouet." In Studies in Renaissance & Baroque Art, Presented to Anthony Blunt on his 60th Birthday. London, 1967: 88-89, fig. 3.
1968
Cuttler, Charles D. Northern Painting from Pucelle to Breughel. Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. New York, 1968: 466, repro.
1968
Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 62-63, color repro.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 22, repro.
1969
Gebelin, François. L’époque Henri IV et Louis XIII. Paris, 1969: 179.
1970
Blunt, Anthony. Art and Architecture in France: 1500 to 1700. 2nd ed. Baltimore, 1970: 65, pl. 48.
1970
Châtelet, Albert, François-Georges Pariset and Raoul de Broglio. Chantilly, Musée Condé: Peintures de l'Ecole française. Paris, 1970: under no. 75.
1970
Muehsam, Gerd. French Painters and Paintings from the Fourteenth Century to Post-Impressionism. New York, 1970: 40, 43-45, repro.
1970
Sterling, Charles. "A Male Portrait by Jean Clouet." Museum Monographs: Papers on Objects in the Collection of City Art Museum of Saint Louis 2 (1970): 60-61, fig. 7.
1971
Lucie-Smith, Edward. A Concise History of French Painting. New York, 1971: 44-45, 47, repro.
1972
Johnson, W. McAllister. "L'Ecole de Fontainebleau: The Paintings." La Chronique des Arts, Supplément à la Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6e pér, 150 no. 81 (January 1972): 42, fig. 42.
1972
Laclotte, Michel. "Pour un Louvre ideal." Jardin des Arts no. 212-213 (July-August 1972): 34, repro.
1972
L'Ecole de Fontainebleau, Exh. cat. Grand Palais, Paris, 1972: 54, no. 54, 214, no 242, 215, no. 243, 220, no. 246.
1972
Ragghianti, Carlo L. "Pertineuze francesi nel Cinquecento." Critica d'Arte 19, n.s. 122 (1972): 46.
1972
Sterling, Charles. “Pertenenze francesi nel Cinquecento.” Critica d’Arte ser. 2, 19 (37), no. 122 (March-April 1972): 46.
1973
Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 84, 86 repro. [as Diane de Poitiers].
1973
Fontainebleau: Art in France 1528-1610. Exh. cat. Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, 1973. 2 vols. Ottawa, 1973: 2:39.
1974
Rich, Daniel Catton. "French School." In European Paintings in the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum. Edited by Louisa Dresser. 2 vols. Worcester, 1974: 1:242, under no. 1932.23.
1974
Worcester Art Museum. European Paintings in the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum. Worester, Massachusetts, 1974: 242.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 72, repro.
1975
McMullen, Roy. Mona Lisa: The Picture and the Myth. Boston, 1975: 151-152, repro.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 224, 226, no. 286, 225, repro.
1976
Bunch, Fredrick. "Diane de Poitiers: Iconography as a Window on History." In College Art Association Abstracts of Papers Delivered in Art History Sessions, "Northern Art at the End of the Middle Ages." Chicago, February 1-4, 1976, 64th annual meeting. Chicago, 1976: 101.
1976
Risatti, Howard. "A French Court Portrait." Bulletin of the Krannert Art Museum 2 (1976): 18, 20, fig. 8.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 253-257, figs. 241-243, as Lady Bathing with Children and Attendants.
1977
Pope-Hennessy, John. "Completing the Account." Review of Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, London 1977. Times Literary Supplement no. 3,927 (17 June 1977).
1978
Brown, David Alan, and Konrad Oberhuber. "Monna Vanna and Fornarina: Leonardo and Raphael in Rome." In Essays Presented to Myron P. Gilmore. 2 vols. Florence, 1978: 1:37.
1978
Tanaka, Hidemichi. "Les deux Venus au bain: Un nouvelle analyse sur la 'Gabrielle d'Estrées et une de des soeurs' du Louvre." Art History (Tohuku University, Japan) 1 (1978): 23, fig. 5.
1979
Chastel, André. Fables, formes, figures. 2 vols. Paris, 1978: 1:269-270, repro.
1979
Jacobs, Michael. Nude Painting. New York, 1979: 44, repro.
1979
Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 60, pl. 42.
1980
Blunt, Anthony. Art and Architecture in France: 1500 to 1700. 4th ed. Harmondsworth, 1980: 119, fig. 90.
1983
Bradshaw, Jillian, and Dorothy M. Jones. "Luxury, Love, and Charity: Four Paintings from the School of Fontainebleau." Australian Journal of Art 3 (1983): 39-40, 43-45, 47-49, 53-57, repro.
1984
Ingenhoff-Danhäuser, Monika. Maria Magdalena: Heilige und Sünderin in der italienischen Renaissance. Tübingen, 1984: 59, fig 56.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 224, no. 280, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 92, repro.
1985
Snyder, James. Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350-1575. New York, 1985: 519, fig. 588.
1987
Delay, Florence. Les Dames de Fontainebleau. Milan, 1987: 53, 57, 60, fig. 39.
1987
Lawner, Lynne. Lives of the Courtesans: Portraits of the Renaissance. New York, 1987: 159-160, 208 n. 40, repro.
1990
Campbell, Lorne. Renaissance Portraits: European Portrait-Painting in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries. New Haven, 1990: 6-7, 109, color fig. 15.
1991
Plogsterth, Ann. "The Institution of the Royal Mistress and the Iconography of Nude Portraiture in Sixteenth-Century France." Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1991: 2-3, 34, 150-151, 157-158, 172-188, 221, 263-267, fig. 19.
1991
Zerner, Henri. “La Dame au Bain.” Le corps à la Renaissance: actes du xxxè colloque de Tours, 1987. Paris, 1991: 95-111, fig. 40.
1992
Châtelet, Albert. La peinture française, XVe et XVIe siècles. Geneva, 1992: 96, 110-113, repro.
1992
Grèce, Michel de. Portrait et seduction. Paris, 1992: 164-165, repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 160, repro.
1992
Romm, Sharon. The Changing Face of Beauty. St. Louis, 1992: 209, repro.
1992
Scaillierez, Cécil. “Clouet, François.” In Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. Edited by Günther Meissner. 87+ vols. Munich and Leipzig, 1992+: 19(1998):595, 596.
1992
Sixteenth Century Renaissance Painting. Vol. 2: A Reading and Viewing of Famous Paintings. Tokyo, 1992: 123-125, repro. (in Japanese).
1993
Chastel, André. L’art français. 6 vols. Paris, 1993. Vol. 2. Temps modernes 1420 – 1620: 232-234, repro.
1993
Kurzel-Runtscheiner, Monica. Glanzvolles Elend: Die Inventare der Herzogin Jacobe von Jüglich-Kleve-Berg (1558-1597) und die Bedeutung von Luxusgüttern für die höfische Frau des 16. Jahrhunderts. Vienna, 1993: fig. 60.
1994
Kamekura, Yusaku and Kijima, Shunsuke. Jozo ["Portraits of Women"]. Tokyo, 1994: 149, repro.
1994
Sewell, Brian. "Lesbian Images." Antique International 8 (Summer 1994): 646-648, repro.
1995
Cox-Rearick, Janet. The Collection of Francis i: Royal Treasures. Antwerp, 1995: 154.
1996
Berstein, Serge, et al. Histoire seconde. Paris, 1996: 165, no. 18, repro.
1996
Knab, Eckhart. “Clouet.” In The Dictionary of Art. Edited by Jane Turner. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 7:465, repro.
1996
Mori Yoko, Wakakuwa Midori. Manierisumu. New History of World Art series, 1992-1997, vol. 15. Tokyo, 1996: 390, fig. 82.
1996
Zerner, Henri. L'art de la renaissance en France: L'invention du classicisme. Paris, 1996: 189-191, 198, 199, color fig. 215, 216.
1997
Jollet, Etienne. Jean & François Clouet. Paris, 1997: 266-267, 272-273, repro.
1998
Apostolos-Cappadona, Diana. “Toilet Scenes." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:873.
1998
Yūkō Shuppan. Seiyō kaiga 300-sen. Tokyo, 1998: 162, repro.
1999
Gotfredson, Lise. The Unicorn. New York, 1999: 129-130, repro.
1999
Smeyers, Jos and Maurits Smeyers. Misschein het tedere begrijpen: Dicter bij kunst. Leuven, 1999: 45, repro.
1999
Zorach, Rebecca Elizabeth. “The Figuring of Excess in French Renaissance Art.” 2 vols. PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1999: 313 – 329, 457, fig. 6.2.
2000
Brauchitsch, Boris von. Renaissance - Das 16. Jahrhundert: Galerie der grossen Meister. Text by Ulrich Pfisterer and Anna Rühl. Cologne, 2000: 146-147, color repro.
2004
Danziger, Elon. "The Cook Collection: Its Founder and Its Inheritors." The Burlington Magazine 146, no. 1216 (July 2004): 448.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 116-117, no. 89, color repro.
2004
Ruby, Sigrid. "Das Porträt der schönen Frau bei François Clouet and Pierre de Ronsard.” In (En)gendered: Frühneuzeitlicher Kunstdiskurs und weibliche Porträtkultur nördlich der Alpen, edited by Simone Rogendord and Sigrid Ruby. Marburg, 2004: 71-74, 79-86, repro.
2005
Baillio, Joseph, et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier: A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein's Presence in New York. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 2005: 99-100, fig. 10b (not in the exhibition).
2005
Fahy, Everett, ed. The Wrightsman Pictures. New Haven, 2005: 21.
2005
Richard, Paul. "From the Collection: Washington's Prized Possessions." Washington Post (December 18, 2005): N8, color repro.
2007
Ruby, Sigrid. “Diane de Poitiers: veuve et favorite.” In Patronnes et mecènes en France à la Renaissance, edited by Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier with Eugene Pascal. Saint-Étienne, 2007: 382, nt. 5.
2009
Fagnard, Laure. Léonard de Vinci en France: collections et collectionneurs (XVème – XVIIème siècles). Rome: Bretschneider, 2009: 70, 128, 393, fig. 24a.
2009
Hand, John Oliver. "A Lady in Her Bath." In French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century by Philip Conisbee et al. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 2009: 115-122, no. 23, color repro.
2012
Christie's New York. "School of Fontainbleau, circa 1600: Gabrielle d'Estrés and Her Sister, the Duchess of Villars." In The Art of France, sale code "Honore 2625" (January 25, 2012): 12, under lot 103.

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