Young Spanish Woman with a Guitar

1898

Auguste Renoir

Artist, French, 1841 - 1919

A young woman with pale, peachy skin and flushed cheeks sits facing our right in profile as she plays a guitar in this horizontal painting. The scene is painted with blended strokes, giving it a soft look and making some of the details indistinct. At the center of the composition, the guitar rests against the woman’s shoulder so it almost spans the width of the painting. The instrument has a caramel-brown body, and the dark brown neck lightens to slate gray by the sound hole. The woman’s eyes are lowered as she looks toward her left hand, her long fingers pinning the strings along the fretboard. She plucks the strings with her other hand. Her hair is covered in a red headscarf tied at the nape of her neck. One end rests on her left shoulder, farther from us, and the other hangs down her back. A low, flat-topped, black, brimmed hat sits atop the scarf. The woman’s features are delicate, and her pink lips are parted. She wears a gold chain with an oval pendant around her neck. Her jacket is gold with a pattern loosely painted with dabs of lapis blue, butter yellow, and rose pink. A yellow ribbon or band is tied to the neck of the guitar and slung over her shoulder. The indistinct space behind her is painted with strokes of moss green, goldenrod yellow, and a few swipes of marigold orange near her face. The artist signed and dated the painting in brown in the lower right corner: “Renoir.98.”

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 81

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 55.6 x 65.2 cm (21 7/8 x 25 11/16 in.)
    framed: 81.9 x 92.1 x 10.1 cm (32 1/4 x 36 1/4 x 4 in.)

  • Accession

    1970.17.76

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased 25 January 1899 from the artist by (Durand-Ruel, Paris stock no. 4988, New York stock no. 4988), until at least 1937;[1] Mme Jean Lefébure, Paris.[2] (Sam Salz Inc., New York); sold 24 October 1962 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York;[3] bequest 1970 to NGA.
[1] Durand-Ruel information provided by Francis Daulte, see letter date 18 August 1977 in NGA curatorial files and accompanying documentation. Lent by Durand-Ruel to exhibition in Dallas in 1937. There are two versions of this painting, sometimes confused. Drucker in 1944 published the NGA painting with the wrong provenance.
[2] See Daulte letter cited above. The Lefébure family was related by marriage to the Durand-Ruels. In 1896 Joseph Durand-Ruel, son of Paul, married Mary Jenny Lefébure [1868-1962].
[3] Invoice from Sam Salz Inc. to Ailsa Mellon Bruce dated 24 October 1962, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1899

  • Tableaux de Renoir, Pissarro, Monet et Sisley, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1899, no. 112.

1905

  • Salon d'Automne, Grand Palais de Shamps -Elysées, Paris, 1905, no. 1325 as Femme à la guitare.

1917

  • Fronzösische Kunst des XIX. und XX. Jahrhunderts, Kunsthaus Zurich, 1917, no. 204, as La guitariste.

1937

  • Master French Impressionists, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1937, no. 27

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 108, repro.

1986

  • Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad; State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 1986, no. 32, repro.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990, no. 50, repro.

1992

  • From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Greece, Athens, 1992-1993, no. 51, repro.

1994

  • Renoir: Master Impressionist, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1994-1995, no. 40, repro., as Young woman with a guitar.

1999

  • Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no cat.

  • Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 35, repro.

2009

  • Renoir au XXe siècle, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009-2010, no. 14, repro.

2017

  • Tintamarre!: Instruments de musique dans l'art, 1860-1910 [In Concert! (Tintamarre): Musical instruments in art between the 1860s and the 1910s], Musée des impressionnismes Giverny, 2017, no. 45, repro.

Bibliography

1933

  • Roger-Marx, Claude. Renoir. Paris, 1933: 8, repro.

1937

  • Roger-Marx., Claude. Renoir. Paris, 1937:repro. p. 25.

  • Duret, Théodore. Renoir. New York, 1937: repro. 13.

1944

  • Drucker, Michel. Renoir. Paris, 1944:121, repro.

1966

  • Goldwater, Robert. "The Glory that was France." Art News 65 (March 1966): 50, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 302, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 471, no. 694, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 347, repro.

1996

  • Quesada, Luis. Pintores Españoles y Extranjeros en Andalucia, Sevilla, 1996, no. 288, repro.

1997

  • Mittler, Gene A., and Rosalind Ragans. Understanding Art. New York, 1997: fig. 1-8.

  • Bailey, Colin B._ Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an age_.Yale University Press New Haven and London, in association with National Gallery of Canada Ottawa, 1997: 343, n.19.

Inscriptions

lower right: Renoir.98.

Wikidata ID

Q20190636

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