id: 148967 accession number: 1977.124 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1977.124 updated: 2023-03-14 10:01:06.982000 Young Woman with a Mandolin, Portrait of Louison Köhler, c. 1873–1874. François Bonvin (French, 1817–1887). Oil on fabric; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin 1977.124 title: Young Woman with a Mandolin, Portrait of Louison Köhler title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1873–1874 creation date earliest: 1873 creation date latest: 1874 current location: creditline: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * François Bonvin (French, 1817–1887) - artist Born into a poor family, François Bonvin was chiefly a self-taught artist. His childhood was an unhappy one, marked by the death of his mother when he was four, his father's remarriage, and the growing family's constant moving and change of fortune. From 1828 through 1830 he was lucky enough to be sent to the École de Dessin in Paris, but his artistic education was short-lived and he began working as a typesetter in 1832. He became a father one month after his marriage in 1837 and, in order to achieve financial security, applied for a clerk's job at the Paris Police Department-where he remained until 1850-while still working as a printer. Painting was still part of his life as attested by one of his first known oils, a still life from 1839. His health declined, and during a hospital-ization in 1842, Bonvin took up drawing again. He eventually returned to study at the École de Dessin and also at the Manufacture des Gobelins and in 1843 attended classes at the Académie Suisse where he could sketch from nude models. Around this time Bonvin was also introduced to Granet (q.v.), whom he would consider his true mentor, although never officially studying with him. Bonvin began painting scenes from everyday life, reflecting the simplicity and often the drudgery of the lower classes. He was encouraged in his choice of subject matter by Granet, who suggested he study the Dutch masters. Bonvin exhibited at the Salon from 1847 to 1880, receiving a second-class medal in 1850. The artist became involved in the realist movement, meeting regularly at the Brasserie Andler with, among others, his friends Jules Champfleury, a novelist and art critic, and Courbet (q.v.). During the Second Empire (1852-70) Bonvin earned a reputation with his still lifes and genre paintings that often paid tribute to the Dutch Old Masters. He traveled several times to the Netherlands in order to study such works. Bonvin also encour-aged younger painters, such as J. A. M. Whistler (1834-1903) and Fantin-Latour (q.v.), holding an exhibition of their works in his studio after they were rejected at the Salon. During his final years, Bonvin suffered from blindness and paralysis and died a broken man in 1887. --- measurements: 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.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower left: F. Bonvin translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1977 opening date: 1977-12-28T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978). title: The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830 - 1900 opening date: 1980-11-12T05:00:00 The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830 - 1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 12, 1980-January 18, 1981). title: Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art opening date: 2012-09-26T00:00:00 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). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Paris, Palais des Champs-Élysées. Salon (1874), no. 218, Portrait de Mlle L. de K . . .
CMA; Brooklyn Museum, Saint Louis Art Museum; Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum. The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830-1900 (1980-82), 246-47, no. 217 (repr.). Text by Gabriel P. Weisberg.
Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN (8/26/2012 - 11/15/2012): "Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art", ex. cat. no. 12, p. 54-55. --- PROVENANCE (Sale, Hôtel Drouot, December 19, 1973 (lot 213) date: 1973 footnotes: citations: Vachet collection, Paris date: ? footnotes: *
Robert Caby, the French composer and writer who later owned the Bonvin, provided the reference to the Vachet collection, but further details about the identity of Vachet are unknown.  The estate sale of one Raymond Vachet was held at Hôtel Drouot on June 24, 1942, but it consisted only of decorative objects and sculptures.  If Raymond Vachet was indeed the prior owner of the Bonvin, he should, of course, appear in the provenance prior to the 1973 Drouot sale, and in any case, Caby did not specifiy Vachet’s approximate years of ownership.  There is also a Galerie Vachet that appears in the provenance of a painting by Lucien Simon (inv 85 19) in the Musée départemental de l’Oise.  

citations: Robert Caby [1905-1992], Paris, sold to Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin date: After 1973 footnotes: citations: Noah L. [1918-1980] and Muriel S. Butkin [1915-1908], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: Until 1977 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1977- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: 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. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Gabriel Weisberg, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Aug. 5, 2014, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Weisberg, Gabriel P. Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art. Notre Dame, Indiana: Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, 2012.

page number: url: Weisberg, Gabriel P. Bonvin. Paris: Éditions Geoffroy-Dechaume, 1979. page number: url: Weisberg, Gabriel P. Bonvin. Paris: Éditions Geoffroy-Dechaume, 1979 page number: url: Weisberg, Gabriel P. Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art. Notre Dame, Indiana: Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, 2012. page number: url: Gabriel Weisberg, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Aug. 5, 2014, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Hôtel Drouot. Estampes anciennes et modernes. 1973. page number: url: Weisberg, Gabriel P. Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art. Notre Dame, Indiana: Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, 2012. page number: url: 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. 59-60, Vol. I, no. 22 url: Marrinan, Michael, Gustave Caillebotte: Painting the Paris of Naturalism, 1872-1887. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2016. page number: Mentioned & Reproduced: pp. 6-7 url: Guichané, Maud, Gabriel P. Weisberg, Léon Bonvin, Jo Briggs, Ger Luijten, and Michèle Quentin. Drawn to the Everyday: Léon Bonvin 1834-1866 : Catalogue Raisonné. Paris : Fondation Custodia, 2022. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 54-55, fig. 30 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.124/1977.124_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.124/1977.124_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.124/1977.124_full.tif