{
"data": {
"id": 146446,
"accession_number": "1972.120",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Portrait of a Woman, c. 1891. Edmond Fran\u00e7ois Aman-Jean (French, 1858\u20131936). Oil on canvas; framed: 113.4 x 117.8 x 8.3 cm (44 5/8 x 46 3/8 x 3 1/4 in.); unframed: 84.4 x 89.5 cm (33 1/4 x 35 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund, 1972.120",
"current_location": "221 19th Century Decorative Arts",
"title": "Portrait of a Woman",
"creation_date": "c. 1891",
"creation_date_earliest": 1886,
"creation_date_latest": 1896,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 19th century"
],
"technique": "oil on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Modern European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 113.4 x 117.8 x 8.3 cm (44 5/8 x 46 3/8 x 3 1/4 in.); Unframed: 84.4 x 89.5 cm (33 1/4 x 35 1/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 1.134,
"height_inch": 44,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 1.178,
"width_inch": 46,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"depth": 0.083,
"depth_inch": 3,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.25
},
"unframed": {
"height": 0.844,
"height_inch": 33,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 0.895,
"width_inch": 35,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Signed left center in green: Aman Jean\r\n",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 301752,
"title": "Year in Review: 1972",
"description": "Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973).",
"opening_date": "1973-02-27T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 182153,
"title": "Monet to Dal\u00ed: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Monet to Dal\u00ed: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).",
"opening_date": "2006-05-27T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 540677,
"title": "Whistler, The Butterfly Effect",
"description": "Whistler, The Butterfly Effect. Mus\u00e9e des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen, France (May 24-September 22, 2024) https://mbarouen.fr/fr/expositions/whistler-l-effet-papillon.",
"opening_date": "2024-05-24T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Paris, Palais des Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es. Salon (1891), jean (a.-e.), no. 874, h.c.[Hors Concours] Portrait; or no. 875, Portrait.",
"opening_date": null
},
{
"description": "CMA (organizer). Beijing World Art Museum, China, May 26 - Aug. 27, 2006; Mori Arts Center, Tokyo, Japan: Sept. 9 - Nov. 26, 2006; Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea: Dec. 18, 2006 - March 31, 2007; Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea: Apr. 7 - May 20, 2007; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia: June 9 - Sept. 16, 2007; Cleveland Musuem of Art, Oct. 2007- January 2008 and the Frist Center, Nashville, TN, Feb. 21-June 1, 2008: \"Modern Masters from the Cleveland Musuem of Art\"",
"opening_date": "2006-05-26T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "CMA (organizer). Beijing World Art Museum, China, May 26 - Aug. 27, 2006; Mori Arts Center, Tokyo, Japan: Sept. 9 - Nov. 26, 2006; Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea: Dec. 18, 2006 - March 31, 2007; Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea: Apr. 7 - May 20, 2007; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: June 9 - Sept. 16, 2007; Cleveland Museum of Art, Oct. 21, 2007- January 13, 2008; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN, Feb. 21-June 1, 2008; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT, June 22 - September 21, 2008; and the Detroit Institute of Arts, MI, October 12, 2008 - January 18, 2009: \"Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art\"",
"opening_date": "2006-05-26T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Paris salon, 1891, no. 874 or 875, probably sold to a private collector)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"The consignor of the painting to the sale at Christie\u2019s in 1971 believed that it had been purchased directly from the artist, quite possibly at the Salon of 1891. The painting\u2019s original frame is inscribed with \u201cSalon de 1891,\u201d and its presence is confirmed in a contemporary descriptive account of exhibited Aman-Jean paintings at the Salon: \u201cCombien je pr\u00e9f\u00e8re\u2026les deux portraits de M. Aman Jean! Celui surtout de la jeune femme en noir, qui tient un bouquet de cl\u00e9matites, est d\u2019une m\u00e9lancolie communicative, d\u2019un deuil attendrissant qui le gravent dans le souvenir, d\u2019autant plus que le sentiment sincere et profound en est sontenu par un arrangement des couleurs, dans la gamme des tons de deuil, tr\u00e8s habile et tr\u00e8s soign\u00e9.\u201d However, because both nos. 874 and 875 in the exhibition catalogue are titled \u201cPortrait\u201d and neither is reproduced, either may be the CMA painting.
"
],
"date": "1891",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Possibly a private collector, probably sold to an Italian private collector.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "Probably from 1891",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Private collector, Italy, by descent to his family",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Christie\u2019s files indicate that an \u201cItalian gentleman\u201d purchased the painting from someone, probably a private co
"
],
"date": "After 1891",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Family of an Italian collector, possibly consigned to Christie's",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"The correspondence concerning this painting's provenance prior to the 1971 Christie's sale is somewhat unclear in its description of the chain of ownership. It seems that the Aman-Jean was likely consigned to Christie's by a descendent of the Italian collector who acquired the painting in the late ninteenth century; however, it is also possible that an unidentified collector was the consignor and should follow the Italian family in the provenance.
"
],
"date": "Before 1971",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "(Christie's, London, sale, July 9, 1971, lot 258, sold to Ferrers Gallery",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"In the auction catalogue, the painting is titled \u201cMeditation.\u201d
"
],
"date": "1971",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "(Ferrers Gallery, London, probably sold to Cyril Humphris)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"The price list for the July 9, 1971 Christie's sale notes that Ferrers Gallery was the buyer of the Aman-Jean painting.
"
],
"date": "1971-1971/1972",
"sortorder": 6
},
{
"description": "(Cyril Humphris, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "Until 1972",
"sortorder": 7
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1972-",
"sortorder": 8
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Aman-Jean, a French Symbolist painter, was likely more concerned with evoking a wistful, meditative mood in this painting of an unidentified woman than with defining a specific personality or likeness. The restrained, tonal palette and flat, decorative shapes suggest the influence of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and James McNeill Whistler. The postcard pinned to the wall may represent a work by Sandro Botticelli. Aman-Jean exhibited this painting at the Paris Salon of 1891.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60472111"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1972.120-portrait-of-a-woman"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Christie, Manson & Woods. Impressionist and Modern Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture. June 9, 1971.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Christie, Manson & Woods. Impressionist and Modern Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture. June 9, 1971.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Patrick Lindsay, letter to Sherman Lee, Jan. 3, 1973, in CMA curatorial file.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Patrick Lindsay, letter to Sherman Lee, Jan. 3, 1973, in CMA curatorial file",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Patrick Lindsay, letter to Sherman Lee, Jan. 3, 1973, in CMA curatorial file.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Patrick Lindsay, letter to Sherman Lee, Jan. 3, 1973, in CMA curatorial file.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\u201cLes Salons de 1891,\u201d Gazette des Beaux-Arts 5 (June 1891): 468.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Catalogue illustr\u00e9 de peinture et sculpture: Salon de 1891. Paris: L. Baschet, 1891.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\u201cA Symbolist Portrait by Edmond Aman-Jean.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 1 (January 1975): 3\u201310.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 5, fig. 1, Cover",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152569"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 217",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n237"
},
{
"citation": "Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 8-11, Vol. I, no. 3",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1972.120",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
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"width": "946",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "544680",
"filename": "1972.120_web.jpg"
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"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1972.120/1972.120_print.jpg",
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"full": {
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": "Victoire and Alfred Rankin Jr. Gallery",
"athena_id": 146446,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1727,
"description": "Edmond Fran\u00e7ois Aman-Jean (French, 1858\u20131936)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "In 1880 Aman-Jean entered the Paris \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts where he studied under the history and portrait painter Henri Lehmann (1814-1882). He would later share a studio with his close friend Seurat (q.v.). Aman-Jean also studied in the Louvre and after 1883 was advised by Puvis de Chavannes (q.v.). After receiving a stipend in 1885, he traveled to Rome the following year together with Ernest Laurent (1859-1929) and Henri Martin (1860-1943). Already an admirer of Goncourt and Flaubert, Aman-Jean began to associate with the Symbolist poets, including St\u00e9phane Mallarm\u00e9, Paul Verlaine, and Philippe-Auguste Villiers de l'Isle Adam. Aman-Jean created delicate, languorous portraits of women, often recalling the works of the English Pre-Raphaelites. In 1885 Aman-Jean began exhibiting regularly at the Salon de la Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Artistes Fran\u00e7ais and later with the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Nationale des Beaux-Arts where he was also a member of the jury. In 1892 and 1893 he showed at the Salons de la Rose + Croix, organized by artists interested in mystical Catholi-cism. These exhibitions were open to all arts. During his later years, Aman-Jean was influenced by Bonnard (q.v.), a member of the Nabis. Besides producing oil paintings, Aman-Jean was also a prolific pastellist and printmaker.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1858",
"death_year": "1936",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1972-12-05T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1886,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1891",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": true,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Portrait of a Woman (Meditation?)"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 07:30:34.330000"
}
}