LEON AUGUSTIN LHERMITTE (FRENCH 1844-1925) Depart des laveuses le soir, 1892 oil on canvas 98 x 78 cm (38 1/2 x 30 3/4 in.) signed and dated lower left L Lhermitte 1892 PROVENANCE Acquired from Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Paris (no. 22249) Collection of John Parkinson, Boston, MA Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (loan 1920-1946) Vose Galleries, Boston, MA Collection of Jacob L. Rosenthal, New York, NY Private Collection, New York EXHIBITED Salon de la Societe nationale des beaux-arts, 1892, no. 683 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA 1920-1946 LITERATURE New York Herald, March 29, 1892 Doumic R. le Moniteur universel, May 5, 1892 Fourtel Eugene, le Petit Marseillais, May 5, 1892 les Petites Nouvelles, May 5, 1892 Andre A. la France nouvelle, May 6, 1892 Cardon E., le Moniteur des arts, May 6, 1892 Correspondence Haras, May 6, 1892 Fremine Ch., le Rappel, May 7, 1892 l'Electeur, May 7, 1892 Silvestre A. l'Echo de Paris, May 7, 1892 De Fontissant M., le Telegraphe, May 9, 1892 Dac H., le Monde, May 16, 1892 Godin H., la Revue des Beaux-Arts, May 21, 1892 l'Echo republicain, May 27, 1892 De Gourcoff O., l'Avenir national, May 28, 1892 Dalligny A., le Journal des arts, May 31, 1892 le Phare de Dunkerque, June 10, 1892 Talansier Ch., le Genie civil, July 2, 1892 Furnel Ch., Revue moderne, September 10, 1892 Hamel M. M., op cit., C 184, cat. No. 181 Monique Le Pelley Fonteny, Leon Augustin Lhermitte: 1844-1925, Catalogue Raisonne, (Paris: Editions Cercle D`Art, 1991), p. 136, no. 160, illustrated LOT NOTES Leon Lhermitte spent the formative years of his life in rural northern France before moving to Paris at the age of 19 in 1863 to attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and debuting at the salon the following year. He has been praised for his monumental and unsentimental treatment of the peasant life with which he himself was so familiar from an early age. Lhermitte at once showed the hard, daily toil of the rural working class and imbued his subjects with a sense of dignity so often lacking in the works of his predecessors. Lhermitte revisited the subject of women doing laundry on the banks of the Marne on several occasions, but this composition focusing on two young women at dusk is among his most striking. When Depart des Laveuses le Soir was shown in 1892 at the Salon exhibition of the new Societe nationale des beaux-arts it caused quite a stir, and in the catalogue raisonne Monique Le Pelley Fonteny has accrued an extensive list of reviews and mentions of the painting in contemporary publications. In the 20th century, the work continued to fascinate and inspire its audience during the decades it was at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Ever since first seeing his work in the early 1880s, Vincent van Gogh was taken with the Lhermitte: “He`s a master of the figure. He`s able to do what he likes with it -- conceiving the whole neither from the color nor from the local tone, but rather proceeding from the light -- as Rembrandt did -- there`s something astonishingly masterly in everything he does -- in modeling, above all things, he utterly satisfies the demands of honesty.” (Letter to his brother Theo, September 2, 1885) In the dapples of soft pink on a robin egg blue sky, the reflections of the setting sun in the water highlighted with scrapes from the wooden end of the brush, and the delicate silhouette of the carefully modeled peasant woman`s profile shimmering in the twilight, one can sense Lhermitte`s attempt to create a synergy between the teaching of the academies and the play of light using unadulterated colors popularized by the Impressionists. The admiration heaped upon Lhermitte by the van Gogh brothers may have also contributed to the artist`s association with Boussod, Valadon & Cie, the prominent international gallery which signed an exclusive contract of representation with Lhermitte in 1887. Vincent van Gogh (the uncle of the painter) was a partner at the firm, and both of the brothers were at one point or another employed by the gallery, as well. PLEASE NOTE If you will be bidding live on auction day, please note that Session I of the Auction (Asian and Russian Fine & Decorative Art), starts at 10:00 AM New York Time and goes from Lot 1 through Lot 254. Session II of the Auction (European, American and International Fine & Decorative Art) starts at 3:00 PM New York Time and goes from Lot 500 through Lot 676. We sell approximately 70 lots per hour.