alb3631623

ALEXANDRE CABANEL. Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (1828-1887)

Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (1828-1887). Artist: Alexandre Cabanel (French, Montpellier 1823-1889 Paris). Dimensions: 67 1/2 x 42 3/4 in. (171.5 x 108.6 cm). Date: 1876.
In the mid-1870's, both Catharine and John Wolfe commissioned works from Cabanel, who had made his reputation as a painter of genre scenes and portraits of Second Empire aristocrats. He ordered a variant of Cabanel's most famous composition, <i>The Birth of Venus</i> (94.24.1), while she commissioned a Biblical figure painting and the present portrait. She sat for Cabanel in Paris, wearing a white satin evening dress that was the height of French fashion in 1876. Contemporary viewers admired the sitter's elegant hands and her stance as that of "a hostess receiving guests...full of flexibility and pliant, willowy grace, entirely American in its distinction and sensitive responsiveness."
The portrait presided over the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection when it was first exhibited at the Museum in November 1887. It was hung directly across from the portrait by Daniel Huntington of the donor's father, John David Wolfe (now in the American Wing; 87.15.78).

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Author: ALEXANDRE CABANEL (1823-1889)

Title: Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (1828-1887)

Caption: Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (1828-1887). Artist: Alexandre Cabanel (French, Montpellier 1823-1889 Paris). Dimensions: 67 1/2 x 42 3/4 in. (171.5 x 108.6 cm). Date: 1876. In the mid-1870's, both Catharine and John Wolfe commissioned works from Cabanel, who had made his reputation as a painter of genre scenes and portraits of Second Empire aristocrats. He ordered a variant of Cabanel's most famous composition, The Birth of Venus (94.24.1), while she commissioned a Biblical figure painting and the present portrait. She sat for Cabanel in Paris, wearing a white satin evening dress that was the height of French fashion in 1876. Contemporary viewers admired the sitter's elegant hands and her stance as that of "a hostess receiving guests...full of flexibility and pliant, willowy grace, entirely American in its distinction and sensitive responsiveness." The portrait presided over the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection when it was first exhibited at the Museum in November 1887. It was hung directly across from the portrait by Daniel Huntington of the donor's father, John David Wolfe (now in the American Wing; 87.15.78).

Technique/material: OIL ON CANVAS

Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Credit: Album

Image size: 2626 × 4094 px | 30.8 MB

Print size: 22.2 × 34.7 cm | 1033.9 × 1611.8 in (300 dpi)

Keywords: ALEXANDRE CABANEL • CANVAS • EUROPE • EUROPEAN PAINTINGS • FRANCE • METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, USA • OIL ON CANVAS • OIL PAINT • OIL PAINTING • OIL PAINTINGC PIO DI SAVOIA • OLI PAINTING • PAINTINGS