Provenance

Maurice Gangnat (1856-1924), Paris, by 1921 (from the artist?) [1]; sale, Gangnat collection, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 24-25, 1925, lot 147, illus. (as "La Frivolité"); purchased by Hessel (bought in?) [2]. Sale, Frederich Muller & Cie, Amsterdam, June 13, 1933, lot 31. Possibly with French Art Galleries, New York, as of 1938 [3]. Louis E. Stern, New York, by March 1946 [4]; bequest to PMA, 1963. 1. See Georges Rivière, Renoir et ses amis, Paris, 1921, illus. p. 239 as coll. Gangnat. According to Julius Meier-Graefe and Robert de Flers, Gangnat bought his Renoirs directly from the artist (see "Die Sammlung Gangnat," Kunst und Künstler, vol. 23, no. 9, June 1925, p. 354; and preface to 1925 Gangnat sale, Hôtel Drouot). 2. According to an annotation in the Frick copy of the auction catalogue the painting was sold to Mr. Hessel, presumably Jos. Hessel, the expert for the sale. 3. A note in the curatorial file indicates that the painting may have been with a New York City dealer, and that it was exhibited at French Art Galleries in 1938. This was probably the exhibition "French Impressionists," Dec. 12, 1938-Jan. 31, 1939, which included a painting called "La Frivolité" (no. 18), the name by which this painting was known. 4. The painting is listed (as "La Frivolité") in an insurance appraisal made for Stern by Georges Keller of Bignou Gallery dated March 1, 1946 (PMA registrar file). Stern exhibited the painting at Rosenberg & Co., New York in 1954.