François Bonvin

Private collection;

sale, New York, Sotheby’s 13 October 1993, lot 231;

with Galerie Berès, Paris, 1999,

with W.M. Brady & Co., Inc., New York, François Bonvin (1817-1887) Paintings and Drawings, 1999, no. 10,

where acquired by Diane A. Nixon

Pittsburgh, Frick Art and Historical Center, Francois Bonvin: the master of the "realist school, 1817-1887", 1999, no. 35;

New York, The Morgan Library & Museum; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Private Treasures: Four Centuries of European Master Drawings, 2007, no. 83 (entry by Jennifer Tonkovich)

Richly drawn, in velvet-like charcoal, this full length study of a seated woman reading is a particularly ravishing example of Bonvin's intimate and contemplative figure studies. François Bonvin was a painter of humble origins, but it is to those origins that he owes the inspiration for his subjects and their gentle, restrained atmosphere. Born in 1817 in what is, today, the fifteenth arrondissement in Paris, the young painter learned the rudiments of drawing at the city’s municipal school. He studied in the evenings at the Gobelins studio and the Académie Suisse, and in his spare time he tramped the corridors of the Louvre, where he admired and tirelessly studied the Flemish and Dutch masters of earlier centuries.

A leading figure of nineteenth century French Realism, Bonvin’s oeuvre mainly focuses on still lifes and genre scenes which, much like the present work, are imbued with a quiet, intimate and meditative style. He was extremely supportive and nurturing to other artists in his circle and was especially encouraging to his half-brother, Léon Bonvin, who was also a talented artist in his own right (see lot 98).

Many of the models depicted throughout Bonvin's work were the regular customers at the inn owned by the artist's father in Vaugirard, or his own friends and family; hiring professional models was costly and François' finances, especially earlier in his career, did not stretch so far.

Drawings, like the present sheet, often signed and dated by the artist, were considered finished works of art to be sold to clientele. The Nixon collection contains a second drawing by François Bonvin, Le Musicien (lot 117), which also dates to 1853 and can be compared to this lot on stylistic grounds.