Inscription: Signed (lower right): AStevens [initials in monogram]
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, New York (until d. 1887; commissioned from the artist)
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. "Mutual Influences between Japanese and Western Arts," September 7–October 27, 1968, unnumbered cat.
Edward Strahan [Earl Shinn], ed. The Art Treasures of America. Philadelphia, [1880], vol. 1, pp. 133–34.
Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer. "The Wolfe Collection. News and Notes." Independent 39 (December 1, 1887), p. 7.
Montezuma [Montague Marks]. "My Note Book." Art Amateur 16 (May 1887), p. 122.
Arthur Hoeber. The Treasures of The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York. New York, 1899, p. 86.
Bryson Burroughs. Catalogue of Paintings. 1st ed. New York, 1914, p. 245, no. St41–1.
Gustave Vanzype. Les frères Stevens. Brussels, 1936, p. 103, no. 97.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 93.
Mutual Influences between Japanese and Western Arts. Exh. cat., National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, 1968, pp. 42, 89, ill.
Marjorie Munsterberg. Stevens. 1974, dates the painting between 1880 and 1887, speculating that Wolfe saw or heard about Stevens's "Yamatori" (location unknown) or "La parisienne japonaise" (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Liège), which were exhibited during these years, and requested that Stevens make another version for her; notes the presence of the same kimono in "L'attente" (location unknown) and "La femme de l'artiste assise dans un jardin" (private collection, Kent); links the model to that in "Le bouquet effeuillé," also known as "Ophélie" (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels), who has been identified as Stevens's sister-in-law [see Ref. de Montesquiou 1900].
William A. Coles. Alfred Stevens. Exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art. Ann Arbor, Mich., 1977, pp. 43–44, ill., compares it to "La parisienne japonaise" (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Liège); dates both paintings probably about 1872.
Edgar Munhall. Ingres and the Comtesse d'Haussonville. Exh. cat., Frick Collection. New York, 1985, p. 120, fig. 105, incorrectly cites Coles's discussion [see Ref. 1977] of Stevens's use of the mirror as relating to the MMA version, rather than the Liège version.
La Belle Époque: Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture. Sotheby's, New York. May 24, 1995, unpaginated.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 345, ill.
Peter Mitchell. Alfred Stevens, 1823–1906. Exh. cat., Adam Williams Fine Art, New York. London, 2004, pp. 23–24, identifies an illustration of the Liège version as this work; notes that William Merritt Chase would have known The Met's picture both when in the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe collection and after her bequest to the museum.
Christiane Lefebvre. Alfred Stevens, 1823–1906. Paris, 2006, p. 15.
Danielle Derrey-Capon inAlfred Stevens: 1823–1906. Exh. cat., Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. Brussels, 2009, p. 32, states that at least one of the two versions of this subject was painted around 1872.
Another version of this painting with a different model in an identical pose and costume is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Liège. A pastel three-quarter length variation, At the Mirror, was sold at Christie's, London, in 1987, and again in 1989. Several other works by Stevens utilize the theme of the mirror, including Meditation, or The Japanese Robe (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and La psyché (private collection). Yamatori (sale, Sotheby's, New York, 1995), L'attente (location unknown), and La femme de l'artiste assise dans un jardin (private collection, Kent) also exhibit Japanese robes.
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