Woman Reading

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Édouard Manet
French, 1832-1883

Woman Reading, 1879/80

Oil on canvas
24 1/16 x 19 7/8 in. (61.2 x 50.7 cm)
Inscribed lower left: Manet
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, 1933.435

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Paris, Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Exposition des Oeuvres de Édouard Manet, January 1884, cat. 92.

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Exhibition of Paintings: Édouard Manet, Pierre Renoir, Berthe Morisot, October–December 1924, cat. 37 (ill.).

Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, Exposition des Oeuvre de Manet, 1925, cat. 78.

Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, Exposition des Oeuvre de Manet, April–May 1928, cat. 25 (ill.).

Berlin, Goldschmidt Galerie, Impressionisten Sondersusstellung, 1928.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Mrs. L. L. Coburn Collection, 1932, cat. 17 (ill.).

The Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1933, cat. 328.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1934, cat. 249.

New York, Wildenstein & Co., Edouard Manet: A Retrospective Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of French Hospitals, March–April 1937, cat. 29 (ill.).

San Francisco, Palace of Fine Arts, Golden Gate International Exposition 1940, cat. 276 (ill.).

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, French Painting From David Toulouse-Lautrec, February–March 1941, cat. 81.

Des Moines, Iowa, Art Center, 19th and 20th Century European and American Art, 1948, no cat.

Birmingham, Ala., Museum of Art, Catalogue of the Opening Exhibition, April 8–June 3, 1951, p. 29.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Manet, November 3–December 11, 1966, cat. 161 (ill.); traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, February 13–19, 1967.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Art at the Time of the Centennial, June 19–August 8, 1976, extended to August 15, 1976, no cat.

Albi, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Trésors Impressionnistes du Musée de Chicago, June 27–August 31, 1980, cat. 4 (ill.).

Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, Manet and Modern Paris, December 5, 1982–March 6, 1983, cat. 22 (ill.).

Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Manet: 1832–1883, April 22–August 1, 1983, cat. 174 (ill.); traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 10–November 27, 1983.

Tokyo, Seibu, Museum of Art, The Impressionist Tradition: Masterpieces from The Art Institute of Chicago, October 18–December 17, 1985, cat. 34 (ill.); traveled to Fukuoka, Art Museum, January 5–February 2, 1986; and Kyoto, Municipal Museum of Art, March 4–April 13, 1986.

Tokyo, ASAHI, Masterworks of Modern Art From The Art Institute of Chicago, 1994, cat. 9 (ill.); traveled to Nagaoka, Niiagata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art; Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art; and Yokohama Museum of Art, 1994-1995.

London, National Gallery, Impressions: Painting Quickly in France, 1860-1890, November 1, 2000-January 28, 2001, no cat. no. (ill.); traveled to Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, March 2-May20, 2001 and Williamstown, Mass., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, June 16-September 9, 2001.

Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Museum of Art, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, June 29–November 2, 2008, cat. 21 (ill.).

Publication History

Théodore Duret, Histoire d’Édouard Manet et de son oeuvre (Paris, 1902), no. 255.

Théodore Duret, Manet and the French Impressionists (London, 1910), p. 251, no. 255.

Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, Manet: Raconté par lui-même vol. 2 (Paris, 1926), p. 53, fig. 241, 346 (ill.).

“Aus der soeben eröffneten Impressionisten-Sonderausstellung,” Der Cicerone 20, 3 (February 1928), p. 113 (ill.).

Art News 27, 40 (September 1929), p. 12 (ill.).

“Chicago Women Acquires a Famous Manet,” Art Digest 4 (October 1, 1929), p. 11 (ill.).

“Modern Art in New York,” Kunst und Künstler 28, 2 (November 1929), p. 82 (ill.).

The Art 16, 6 (1930), p. 411 (ill.).

A. Tabarant, Manet: Histoire catalographique (Paris, 1931), no. 293.

Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein, Manet (Paris, 1932), vol. 1, p. 161, no. 334, vol. 2, p. 71, fig. 158.

“Masterpieces of the French Impressionists,” The Fine Arts 19, 1 (June 1932), p. 23 (ill.).

Daniel Catton Rich, “The Bequest of Mrs. L. L. Coburn,” Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin 26 (1932), pp. 67 (ill.), 68.

“L’Exposition d’Art français de l’Art Institute of Chicago,” Formes 33 (1933), p. 382.

The Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1936), p. 34.

Théodore Duret, Manet, trans. J. E. Crawford Flitch (New York, 1937), pl. 37.

A. M. Franfurter, “Manet, First American Retrospective,” Art News (March 20, 1937), p. 24.

Arts and Dekorations 46 (April 1937), p. 19 (ill.).

Robert Rey, Manet (New York, 1938), pp. 69 (ill.) 162, no. 69.

A. Tabarant, Manet et ses oeuvres (Paris, 1947), pp. 237, 328, 541, no. 297 (ill.).

Charles Fabens Kelley, “Chicago: Record Years,” Art News 51, 4 (1952), p. 107.

“French Painters: VIII. Edouard Manet,” Apollo (February 1953), pp. 49–52, (ill.) 49.

Eric Newton, “French Painters, VIII-Édouard Manet,” Apollo 57 (1953), p. 49.

The Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1956), p. 34.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), pp. 27, (ill.) 259.

Frederick A. Sweet, “Great Chicago Collectors, “ Apollo 84 (September 1966), pp. 203, (ill) 201, fig. 29.

George Heard Hamilton, “Is Manet Still Modern?,” Art News 31 (1966), p. 162.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Calendar 61, 1 (January 1967), pp. 4, 5 (ill.).

Phoebe Pool and Sandra Orienti, The Complete Paintings of Manet (New York, 1967), no. 261 (ill.).

Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein, Edouard Manet: Catalogue raisonné: Peintures vol. 1 (Paris, 1975), p. 244, no. 313 (ill.).

Anne Coffin Hanson, Manet and the Modern Tradition (New York, 1977), pp. 66, 174, pl. 7, fig. 113.

Diane Kelder, Great Book of Impressionism (New York, 1980), p. 113 (ill.).

Kathleen Adler, Manet (Oxford, 1986), pp. 200-1 (ill.).

Richard R. Brettell, French Impressionists (Chicago, 1987), ill.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1988), p. 62 (ill.).

Robert Snell, “Seen Through A Temperament,” Times Literary Supplement (December 15, 2000), p. 17.

The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven and London, 2008), cat. 21, p. 61 (ill.).

Ownership History

Sold by the artist to J. B. Faure (died 1914), Paris, 1882 for 500 francs [recorded in Manet’s account book, see Paris 1983]; by descent to his son, Maurice Faure, 1914 [according to Tabarant 1931]. Howard Young, New York, by 1929 [stock no. 8337, based on information from Registrar archival card, copy in curatorial file]; Mrs. Lewis (Annie Swan) Coburn (died 1932), Chicago by 1929 [see Art News 1929]; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.