Lot Essay
This work is recorded in the Vollard archives, photo no. 91 (annotated by Czanne's son: 1865)
In La femme au perroquet, one of a number of realist genre images he produced in the 1860s, Czanne revived a favorite subject of the seventeenth-century Dutch school: a girl with a pet parrot or bird. Some years earlier, in a painting of circa 1860 (Rewald no. 12) he had already produced a rather amateurish rendering of the theme. And in the late 1880s, in a canvas that may have been executed for his sister, Marie, and now hangs in the Barnes Collection (Rewald no. 641), Czanne again turned to the popular genre subject. In the present work, the girl is shown feeding a bird perched in her hand, while in the Barnes painting, Czanne's figure reaches her hand toward the caged parrot. And although the theme would be treated by both Manet and Courbet in 1866 (both in The Metropolitan Museum of Art), in large figure paintings that exploit its sensual possibilities in overtly modern terms, Czanne's versions, both early and later, studiously follow Dutch prototypes.
The symbolism of the genre subject can be traced in Dutch painting, baroque emblem books and the many later examples of the theme produced by rococo artists. The image of a woman feeding her parrot, as in Van Mieris's painting of the subject (National Gallery, London), could represent a woman nurturing dreams of romance, while the motif of a woman reaching toward her pet bird, as in Czanne's later version or Jan Steen's The Parrot Cage (Mauritshuis, The Hague), might symbolize the girl reaching for dreams of love. The caged or tethered bird was also a traditional symbol of virginity or sometimes of love enslaved, while the bird that escapes its cage could represent lost virginity. And often, the charming, dual subject lent itself to pendants, as in Jean Raoux's two related rococo versions, Jeune fille tenant un oiseau and Jeune fille nourrissant un oiseau.
Like his later version of the theme, Czanne's La femme au perroquet underscores the Dutch Baroque origins of his genre subject. In the catalogue to the 1984 exhibition Czanne au Muse d'Aix, Bruno Ely suggested two works as potential sources, both of which figured in the Bourguignon bequest of 1860, which was formally installed in the Aix museum in 1866: Martin's Drolling's Jeune paysanne sa fentre, which may have influenced Czanne's use here of the window and ledge as a framing device, and the Portrait de la femme d'un ambassadeur, attributed in the nineteenth century to Constantin Netscher, which, though different in form (except for its use of foliage), bears a similar subject. Lewis suggested additional sources in Charles Blanc's Ecole hollandaise (1861), part of his venerable Histoire des peintres de toutes les coles to which Czanne is known to have often refered, especially in his early years. Engravings reproduced by Blanc after Gaspard Netscher's and Gerard Dow's well-known versions of the theme, both of which place the figure in a niche, may well have also informed Czanne's rendering. Reflecting the sustained tradition of his subject, one which the painter clearly knew, Czanne's La femme au perroquet also ties his genre work to the renewed interest in Dutch art apparent in French realist painting thoughout the 1860s. Julius Meier-Graefe saw this painting at Vollard's and described in 1904 his admiration for "the very free treatment of the foliage that overhangs part of the window."
(fig. 1) Jeune Fille a la Voliere, circa, 1888 (possibly later), Barnes collection.
In La femme au perroquet, one of a number of realist genre images he produced in the 1860s, Czanne revived a favorite subject of the seventeenth-century Dutch school: a girl with a pet parrot or bird. Some years earlier, in a painting of circa 1860 (Rewald no. 12) he had already produced a rather amateurish rendering of the theme. And in the late 1880s, in a canvas that may have been executed for his sister, Marie, and now hangs in the Barnes Collection (Rewald no. 641), Czanne again turned to the popular genre subject. In the present work, the girl is shown feeding a bird perched in her hand, while in the Barnes painting, Czanne's figure reaches her hand toward the caged parrot. And although the theme would be treated by both Manet and Courbet in 1866 (both in The Metropolitan Museum of Art), in large figure paintings that exploit its sensual possibilities in overtly modern terms, Czanne's versions, both early and later, studiously follow Dutch prototypes.
The symbolism of the genre subject can be traced in Dutch painting, baroque emblem books and the many later examples of the theme produced by rococo artists. The image of a woman feeding her parrot, as in Van Mieris's painting of the subject (National Gallery, London), could represent a woman nurturing dreams of romance, while the motif of a woman reaching toward her pet bird, as in Czanne's later version or Jan Steen's The Parrot Cage (Mauritshuis, The Hague), might symbolize the girl reaching for dreams of love. The caged or tethered bird was also a traditional symbol of virginity or sometimes of love enslaved, while the bird that escapes its cage could represent lost virginity. And often, the charming, dual subject lent itself to pendants, as in Jean Raoux's two related rococo versions, Jeune fille tenant un oiseau and Jeune fille nourrissant un oiseau.
Like his later version of the theme, Czanne's La femme au perroquet underscores the Dutch Baroque origins of his genre subject. In the catalogue to the 1984 exhibition Czanne au Muse d'Aix, Bruno Ely suggested two works as potential sources, both of which figured in the Bourguignon bequest of 1860, which was formally installed in the Aix museum in 1866: Martin's Drolling's Jeune paysanne sa fentre, which may have influenced Czanne's use here of the window and ledge as a framing device, and the Portrait de la femme d'un ambassadeur, attributed in the nineteenth century to Constantin Netscher, which, though different in form (except for its use of foliage), bears a similar subject. Lewis suggested additional sources in Charles Blanc's Ecole hollandaise (1861), part of his venerable Histoire des peintres de toutes les coles to which Czanne is known to have often refered, especially in his early years. Engravings reproduced by Blanc after Gaspard Netscher's and Gerard Dow's well-known versions of the theme, both of which place the figure in a niche, may well have also informed Czanne's rendering. Reflecting the sustained tradition of his subject, one which the painter clearly knew, Czanne's La femme au perroquet also ties his genre work to the renewed interest in Dutch art apparent in French realist painting thoughout the 1860s. Julius Meier-Graefe saw this painting at Vollard's and described in 1904 his admiration for "the very free treatment of the foliage that overhangs part of the window."
(fig. 1) Jeune Fille a la Voliere, circa, 1888 (possibly later), Barnes collection.