The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Woman Meditating

Woman Meditating

after 1868
(French, 1796–1875)
Unframed: 59.4 x 42.9 cm (23 3/8 x 16 7/8 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Scholars speculate that Camille Corot's model for this painting was Emma Dobigny, the frail young girl who posed for the two versions of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes's painting Hope of 1872 (Musée du Louvre, Paris; Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore).

This painting, acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1949, as a work by Corot, proved to be a copy when the signed original reappeared at a public auction in New York in 1981.

Description

This painting, acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1949, as a work by Corot, proved to be a copy when the signed original reappeared at a public auction in New York in 1981. Although the original, Jeune Femme Pensive or La Méditation, is not in the Corot catalogue raisonné compiled by his friend Alfred Robaut, that painting does have an unquestionable origin. According to one source, Corot painted the original version in Paris in 1866–68 and allowed his pupil, Eugène Lavieille, to make a copy with permission.
  • Probably Gottfried Tanner, Bahnhofstrasse 39, Zürich. Galerie Matthiesen, Berlin. (According to notes in the file on "Matthiesen Gallery, London" in the cma archive, the Berlin gallery's records were destroyed during World War II.) Jakob Goldschmidt, New York, by 1941. Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York. Purchased by the CMA in 1949.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 495 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 168 archive.org
    Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 158-159, Vol. I, no. 60
    Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Picture Book No. 4 . [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. Reproduced: p. 34 archive.org
  • Corot Exhibition. Gallery of the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (organizer) (August 14-September 12, 1965); National Gallery, London, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (October 1-November 7, 1965).
    Indianapolis, Herron Museum. The Romantic Era: Birth and Flowering, 1750-1850 (1965), no. 45 (repr.).
    Edinburgh International Festival. Corot (1965), no. 77 (repr.).
    Barbizon School. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 24-March 3, 1963).
    Work of Camille Corot. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (October 5-November 13, 1960).
    Art Institute of Chicago. Corot 1796-1875 (1960), no. 87 (repr.).
    Baron Gros, Painter of Battles: The First Romantic Painter. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 8-April 15, 1956).
    New York, Wildenstein & Co. The Serene World of Corot (1942), no. 42, La Femme pensive, lent by J. Goldschmidt (repr.).
    New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. French Painting from David to Toulouse-Lautrec (1941), no. 14, Corot, Pensive Woman, lent by Jakob Goldschmidt (repr.).
    San Francisco, Palace of Fine Arts. Golden Gate International Exposition (1940), no. 247 (repr.).
  • {{cite web|title=Woman Meditating|url=false|author=Jean Baptiste Camille Corot|year=after 1868|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1949.189