Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009635About the Artwork
The languorous, sensuous pose of this woman is strongly reminiscent of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres's popular paintings of odalisques, female slaves, and concubines in Turkish harems. Much of this canvas has been left thinly painted or entirely blank, suggesting that it was a figural study rather than a finished work of art. The French Academy in the 1800s viewed the depiction of the nude as the ultimate measure of an artist's skill. Because models changed poses frequently, students had to work quickly and without embellishment. Here the artist completed only those areas needed to emphasize the contours of the model's body.
Provenance
M. Zamaron, Paris. Bought from him by Mrs. Cornelius Sullivan, New York, before 1938. Bought by Leonard C. Hanna Jr. as gift for CMA on 8 February 1939.
Exhibition history
The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941). French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 6-February 15, 1942). 19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943). Two Sides of the Medal: French Painting from Gérôme to Gauguin. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (September 28-November 6, 1954). Baron Gros, Painter of Battles: The First Romantic Painter. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 8-April 15, 1956). Man: Glory, Jest, and Riddle: A Survey of Human From Through the Ages. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (organizer) (November 10, 1964-January 3, 1965). Art in the Making. Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME (organizer) (July 14-September 25, 1966). French Nineteenth Century Oil Sketches: David to Degas. Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, Chapel Hill, NC (organizer) (March 5-April 30, 1978). Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Isidore Pils (French, 1813/15–1875)
- Date
- c. 1841
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- Dimensions
- Unframed: 72.5 x 92 cm (28 9/16 x 36 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.
- Accession no.
- 1939.63
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Open-access museum record · AT-00009635
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