Madonna of the Rose

Inscription: Signed, dated, and inscribed (lower right): P.A.J. DAGNAN-B / PARIS 85.

[Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Paris, 1886–89; bought from the artist on February 17, 1886, for Fr 5,000, stock no. 17724, as "La Vièrge, après réduction"; sold on June 6, 1889 for Fr 8,000 to Shields Clarke]; Thomas Shields Clarke, Pittsburgh and New York (1889–1906; sold in 1906 to The Met)

Pittsburgh. Carnegie Art Galleries. "First Annual Exhibition," November 5, 1896–January 1, 1897, no. 73 (as "The Madonna of the Rose").

Pittsburgh. Carnegie Institute. "Loan Exhibition of Paintings at the Carnegie Institute," November 6, 1902–January 1, 1903, no. 30 (as "Madonna of the Rose," lent by Mr. Thomas Shields Clarke).

New York. Dahesh Museum of Art. "Against the Modern: Dagnan-Bouveret and the Transformation of the Academic Tradition," September 10–December 7, 2002, unnumbered cat. (fig. 73).

Palm Beach. Society of the Four Arts. "Against the Modern: Dagnan-Bouveret and the Transformation of the Academic Tradition," January 3–February 9, 2003, unnumbered cat. (fig. 73).

"A Madonna of Dagnan-Bouveret." Century Illustrated Magazine 45 (December 1892), pp. 162–63, ill. (engraving by H. Wolf), as in the collection of Thomas Shields Clarke.

William A. Coffin. "Dagnan-Bouveret." Century Illustrated Magazine 48 (May 1894), p. 10 n. 1, calls it "Madonna" and dates it 1885; locates it in the collection of Mr. T. S. Clarke, Pittsburgh.

William A. Coffin. "Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret." Modern French Masters: A Series of Biographical and Critical Reviews by American Artists. Ed. John C. van Dyke. New York, 1896, ill. opp. p. 240, as "Madonna and Child".

"Treasures in High Art." Pittsburg [sic] Post (November 5, 1896), p. 2, in a review of Exh. Pittsburgh 1896, remarks that "so vivid is it that other pictures near it are unnoticed".

J. Dampt and André-Charles Coppier. Catalogue des Œuvres de M. Dagnan-Bouveret (Peintures). Paris, 1930, p. 24, list it as "Madone aux roses" among paintings from 1886.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, p. 220, ill., as "The Madonna of the Rose"; state that the original version of this picture (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich) was set in a carpenter's shop and was criticized at the Salon of 1885 for being too realistic; note that in our picture the carpenter's tools are replaced by the vase of roses and Virgin's face is idealized.

Gabriel Weisberg. "Tastemaking in Pittsburgh: The Carnegie International in Perspective, 1896–1905." Carnegie Magazine 56 (July–August 1983), pp. 20–21, ill., comments that in response to the Salon criticism of the first version of this composition, "Dagnan tempered his inherent naturalism to create an ethereal, otherworldly realm".

Pauline Grisel. "P. A. J. Dagnan-Bouveret à travers sa correspondance." Master's thesis, Université de Lyon, 1987, p. 52.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 493, ill.

Kenneth Neal. A Wise Extravagance: The Founding of the Carnegie International Exhibitions, 1895–1901. Pittsburgh, 1996, pp. 39, 44, fig. 11, notes that Thomas Shields Clarke lent this picture to Exh. Pittsburgh 1896.

Gabriel P. Weisberg in Collecting in the Gilded Age: Art Patronage in Pittsburgh, 1890–1910. Exh. cat., Frick Art & Historical Center. Pittsburgh, 1997, pp. 261, 263, 267, 388 n. 239, fig. 105, dates it 1886; asserts that by 1892 this painting "had arrived in Pittsburgh, having once been owned by Thomas Shields Clarke" who had acquired it at an unknown date, but in a footnote, states that it was shipped to Pittsburgh in 1896 from the Manhattan Storage Warehouse for the Carnegie exhibition where it was marked for sale with the asking price of $15,000; notes that it was praised by viewers and critics during the 1896 exhibition.

Gabriel P. Weisberg. Against the Modern: Dagnan-Bouveret and the Transformation of the Academic Tradition. Exh. cat., Dahesh Museum of Art. New York, 2002, p. 73, fig. 73 (color).

Michelle C. Montgomery. "Review of ‘Against the Modern: Dagnan-Bouveret and the Transformation of the Academic Tradition’." Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 2 (Winter 2003) [http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/winter03/237-against-the-modern-dagnan-bouveret-and-the-transformation-of-the-academic-tradition], notes it as an example of the artist’s synthesis of naturalism with symbolism.

Alan C. Braddock. "Painting the World’s Christ: Tanner, Hybridity, and the Blood of the Holy Land." Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 3 (Autumn 2004), fig. 8 (color) [http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn04/298-painting-the-worlds-christ-tanner-hybridity-and-the-blood-of-the-holy-land], notes the potential influence of its representation of the Christ child on Henry Ossawa Tanner’s "Mary" (1900; LaSalle University Art Museum, Philadelphia).

This is the second version of a painting shown at the Salon of 1885, Madonna with Plane (1885, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich). An engraving of The Met's version by H. Wolf was reproduced in Century Illustrated Magazine in 1892.