Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009797Young Woman with a Mandolin, Portrait of Louison Köhler
About the Artwork
Bonvin was fascinated by the realism of 17th-century Dutch, Flemish, and Spanish still life paintings. He was also aware of the French Realist movement, a highly candid, straightforward style with political overtones. This work embodies both the realism for which Bonvin was famous and the still life paintings of earlier periods. The woman in the painting is Louison Köhler (1850–?), the artist's mistress. After two failed marriages, Bonvin met her in 1870, and she remained with him until his death, appearing in several of his paintings. The image of the reclining woman hanging directly over Louison's head probably suggests the carnal nature of their relationship. Bonvin borrowed this image—a swooning, overjoyed female—from the famous painting Bacchanal by Titian (1485–1576), now in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Inscriptions
Signed lower left: F. Bonvin
Provenance
1973: (Sale, Hôtel Drouot, December 19, 1973 (lot 213) ?: Vachet collection, Paris After 1973: Robert Caby [1905-1992], Paris, sold to Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Until 1977: Noah L. [1918-1980] and Muriel S. Butkin [1915-1908], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1977-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978). The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830 - 1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 12, 1980-January 18, 1981). Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art. Snite Museum, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (organizer) (September 2-December 2, 2012).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- François Bonvin (French, 1817–1887)
- Date
- c. 1873–1874
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- Dimensions
- Framed: 70.5 x 62.2 x 7.6 cm (27 3/4 x 24 1/2 x 3 in.); Unframed: 54.9 x 46 cm (21 5/8 x 18 1/8 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin
- Accession no.
- 1977.124
More by François Bonvin in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009797
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