Portrait of Sonia

1890

Henri Fantin-Latour

Artist, French, 1836 - 1904

Henri Fantin-Latour

Attributed to

Shown from the knees up, a young pale-skinned woman sits looking at us in this vertical portrait painting. Her body is angled to our right, but she turns her face to gaze out with large brown eyes under dark brows. She has an upturned nose, and a wine-red, bow-shaped mouth in a narrow face. A fringe of brown bangs falls across her forehead, and her hair is pulled back under a wide-brimmed hat topped with a cream-white and dark brown feather. The cap is worn back on her head so only the cinnamon-brown underside of the brim is visible. A long black or very dark brown fur stole drapes around her neck, crosses at her waist, and falls to her lap. She wears an ivory-white gown with a muted burgundy pattern on the cuffs and matching sash that wraps her waist and ties in a bow at her back. Both hands rest in her lap. The closer hand lies alongside the stole, and she wears two gold rings on the third finger. One is set with a pale blue gem and the other with a dark red stone. Her other hand is a loose fist around the far end of the stole. She is set against a flat, camel-brown background. The artist signed and dated the upper right corner, “A ma chére nièce Sonia. Fantin. 90.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 109.2 x 81 cm (43 x 31 7/8 in.)
    framed: 132.7 x 104.4 cm (52 1/4 x 41 1/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1963.10.145

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The sitter, Sonia de Nikanoff [née Yanovski], niece of the artist. Duncan Phillips, Washington, D.C., by 1926.[1] (Paul Rosenberg et Cie., Paris); sold September 1936 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York;[2] bequest 1963 to NGA.
[1]Published in Duncan Phillips, A Collection in the Making, 1926, plate 39. [2]On Dale's acquisition of the painting, see the manuscript of his autobiography, Archives of American Art, microfilm reel 3969, copy NGA curatorial records.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1890

  • Salon of 1890, Paris, no. 890, as Portrait of Mlle S.Y..

  • Exposition générale des beaux-arts, Brussels, 1890, no. 282, as Portrait of Mlle S.Y..

1891

  • 122nd exhibition of the Royal Academy, Royal Academy, London, 1891, no. 1110, as Sonia, daughter of General Yanovski.

1892

  • Exhibition of the Society of Portrait Painters at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolor, Picadilly, London, 1892, no. 198, as Sonia (daughter of General Yanovski).

1906

  • Exposition de l'oeuvre de Fantin-Latour, École nationale supérieur des beaux-arts, Paris, 1906, no. 63, as Portrait de Mademaoiselle S.Y..

1932

  • Fantin-Latour, Museum of French Art, New York, 1932, no. 19.

1936

  • Centenaire de Henri Fantin-Latour, Musée Bibliothèque de Grenoble, 1936, no. 40, as Portrait de Mlle S.J..

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

1980

  • Post-Impressionism: Cross-Currents in European and American Painting 1880-1906, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980, no. 11, repro.

2010

  • From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1942

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 48, repro.

1944

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 48, repro.

1953

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 40, repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 326, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 49.

  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 69, repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 41, repro.

1974

  • Chiego, William J. "Two Paintings by Fantin-Latour." Museum News. The Toledo Museum of Art 17, no. 2 (1974): 36, repro. 37

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 126, repro.

1979

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 113, pl. 98.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 494, no. 731, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 151, repro.

Inscriptions

upper right: A ma chere [sic] niece Sonia / Fantin. 90

Wikidata ID

Q20190219

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