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Old Woman with Copper Pot

François Bonvin (French, 1817-1887) (Artist)
1862
transparent and opaque watercolor with graphite underdrawing, pen and iron gall ink, heightened with gum varnish on blue-gray, moderately thick, moderately textured, laid cartridge-style paper
(18th and 19th Centuries )

Whether painting in oils or watercolors, Bonvin frequently presented intimate views of solitary figures set against a neutral, interior background. An elderly peasant woman is represented seated on ladderback armchair that is turned at a slight angle. In her lap, she holds a copper warming pot upon which she rests her gnarled hands. The artist has employed his customary muted palette, limited to browns, grays, reds, and blacks with small areas of yellow and white. In this instance, the subject's intensely white headdress and her colorful shawl sharply contrast with her otherwise somber attire. The same model posed for Bonvin's drawing "Femme à la lampe" (1864), in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. The gleaming copper pot also occurred in an oil painting, "Le banc des pauvres" (1864), now in the Musée de Montpellier, and in two drawings of the same year.

Inscription

[Signed and dated] Lower left, in brown ink: F. Bonvin, 1862; [Number] Verso in graphite: 12

Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

William T. Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Exhibitions

2005-2006 The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma.
1997-1998 French Master Drawings. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.
1979 A Supple Brush: The Flowering of Continental Watercolors. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.

Conservation

Date Description Narrative
4/20/1979 Examination examined for exhibition
1/1/2002 Treatment examined for exhibition; mounted; other
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Geographies

France (Place of Origin)

Measurements

H: 8 1/8 x W: 6 1/8 in. (20.6 x 15.6 cm)

Credit Line

Acquired by William T. Walters

Location in Museum

Not on view

Accession Number

In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.

37.1598

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