© Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

A Studio on the rue Visconti

1867
Huile sur toile
64,8 x 48,3 cm - 25 1/2 x 19 in.
Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Etats-Unis - Inv. 83.4
Dernière mise à jour : 2022-04-03 06:23:30
Référence : MSb-27

History

Famille de l’artiste, Montpellier - André Bazille, neveu de l’artiste - Mme Rachou- Bazille, née Andrée Bazille - Wildenstein Gallery, New York, 1961 - M. et Mme Paul Mellon, Washington, 1983 - The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (Collection M. and Mme Paul Mellon).

Exhibitions

Montpellier, Exposition internationale, 1927, Rétrospective Bazille, n° 15 - Paris, Association des étudiants protestants, 1935, n° 8 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1941, n° 19 - Paris, galerie Wildenstein, 1950, n° 28 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1958, n° 4 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1959, n° 17 - Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1966, French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, n° 110, repr. p. 124 - Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 23, repr. p. 65 - Pitman, Cat. exp. Montpellier, New York, 1992-1993, n° 13, repr. p. 94 - Atlanta, High Museum, 1999, n° 14, repr. p. 47 - Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 35, repr. p. 237 et p. 173 [Les références sont du catalogue en français].

Bibliography

Poulain, Bazille et ses amis, 1932, n° 18, pp. 84, 214 - Sarraute, Catalogue de l'œuvre de Frédéric Bazille, 1948, n° 20, pp. 16, 44 [Thèse de l'Ecole du Louvre non publiée] - Daulte, Bazille et son temps, 1952, n° 21 (repr.), pp. 90, 174-175 - Rewald, Histoire de l'impressionnisme, 1973, p. 184 [Réédition de 1946] - Marandel, Cat. exp. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 23, repr. p. 64 - Walters, Arts in Virginia, 1982-1983, vol. 23, n° 1 et 2, repr. coul. p. 34 - Georgel, La peinture dans la peinture, 1982-1983, fig. 322, p. 185 - Near, Apollo, 1985, cat. n° 1, p. 6, repr. coul. p. 7 - Daulte, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, 1992, n° 23, repr. coul. pp. 47, 91-92, 162-163 [Réédition de 1952 avec photos en couleur] - Michel, Bazille, 1992, p. 128 - Pitman, Catalogue exp. Montpellier, New York, 1992-1993, pp. 94-95 - Bajou, Frédéric Bazille, 1993, p. 124 (repr.) - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné, 1995, n° 27, repr. p. 146 - Pitman, Bazille : Purity, Pose and Painting in the 1860s, 1998, pp. 82, 133, 184, 203, 257, note 76 - Champa, Catalogue exp. Atlanta, High Museum, 1999, n° 14, repr. p. 47, pp. 19-65 - Pitman, Catalogue exp. Atlanta, High Museum, 1999, n° 14, repr. p. 47, pp. 19-65 - Hilaire, Jones, Perrin, Catalogue exp. Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 35, repr. p. 237 et p. 173 [Les références sont du catalogue en français] - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné numérique, 2022, n° 27.

Artistically and psychologically, the A Studio on the rue Visconti is in line with The Artist's Studio on the rue de Furstenberg. Little time separates the two paintings, moreover.

Bazille moved into his new home on the rue Visconti in July 1866 and remained there until the end of December 1867, hosting Renoir and Monet. He describes it as follows: "I am installed in my new studio in rue Visconti, n° 20, it is quite convenient although very small. I have a very livable room, and the staircase is very decent".

At the back of the room, in a small room, there is a small window and, in the corner of the room, a fireplace on which are arranged various objects: a vase filled with flowers, a bottle, a glass and a goblet, a pile of books or documents. A little higher up, on a kind of corner hiding the chimney pipe, a plaster sculpture impossible to identify. Next to the fireplace, a simple wooden bench, placed there as if to allow the viewer to look at the painting installed on the easel. At the foot of it, a palette on which stand out some spots of bright colors. Finally, leaning against the right wall, a small round table. Unlike The Artist's Studio on the rue de Furstenberg, this painting has a perspective that it owes to the floorboards and is reminiscent of Caillebotte.

Rue de la Bavole à Honfleur, circa 1864, Claude Monet, Boston Museum of Arts — *Rue de la Bavole à Honfleur*, circa 1864, Claude Monet, Boston Museum of Arts

On the wall, thirteen paintings hang. On the one on the right, a large cut painting. Sarraute and Marandel assume that it is the Little Italian Street Singer. Still on the right, two small seascapes, the one on the right makes think of Monet's Port de Honfleur. Finally, on the far right, someone in bust. Sarraute proposes the Young Woman with Lowered Eyes, not remembering that this latter painting was not executed until 1868. In fact this painting too is difficult to identify. On the same wall, two prepared blank canvases are waiting to be painted. On the left wall, several paintings are regularly arranged. At the bottom left and top right are two seascapes; the one on the right, probably by Monet, depicts the cliffs at Honfieur. At bottom right, The Scoter by Bazille. Framed, a village street. One thinks of Monet's Rue de village en Normandie.

A Studio in the rue Visconti awakens the same ideas as The Artist's Studio on the rue de Furstenberg: the painter's solitude, the absence of anecdote, the simplicity of the subject matter, influences including that of Delacroix in his Coin d'atelier whose attribution is now in question. What changes here, however, is the color - the general sobriety of the painting - which plays in grays and greens while The Artist's Studio in the rue de Furstenberg is all in the range of ochres and pinks. After the The Artist's Studio on the rue de Furstenberg, this one highlights the painter's function: the palette, in the foreground, catches the eye, and we have no doubt of the meaning Bazille wanted to give it.