Provenance

Charles-Henri Deudon

French, 1832 - 1914

Explore Selected Works

A woman with light skin sits facing us across a marble-topped table in a café in this vertical painting. Her body is angled slightly to our right, and she rests her right elbow, on our left, on the table. She leans her right cheek onto the back of her right hand as she gazes into the distance. She holds a cigarette in her other hand, which rests on the tabletop. Her pale pink dress has long sleeves with ruffles at the cuffs, and buttons down the front of the skirt can be seen under the table. A lace bow or ruffles cascade down at her neck. Straw-colored hair peeks out under a black hat encircled with a wide band of lace. A short, stemmed glass sitting on the table in front of her holds a small, round piece of fruit surrounded by caramel-colored liquid. The white marble tabletop is streaked with gray. The burgundy, patterned banquette she sits on takes up the bottom half of the composition, and wood paneling around a slate-gray metal grate fills the top half. Loose brushstrokes are visible throughout. The artist signed the work as if he had written his name on the surface of the table, near the front edge to our left, "Manet."
Edouard Manet, Plum Brandy, c. 1877, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1971.85.1

Plum Brandy

Edouard Manet · c. 1877 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1971.85.1

A pale-skinned girl wearing an arctic-blue ballet costume stands looking at us and almost fills this vertical painting. The scene is painted with blended strokes, giving it a soft, almost blurry look. In pale pink ballet slippers, she stands with her feet in fifth position, so the toes are turned out while her feet are almost parallel, the heel of the front foot touching the toes of the other. Her body faces our left, and she turns her head to look at us with blue eyes. She has delicate, dark brows, rosy cheeks, and full pink lips. Her long honey-brown hair is tied with a sky-blue ribbon like a headband. The fitted bodice of her pale blue dress has a lapis-blue bow at the chest, and the short sleeves tie around the sides of her shoulders. A sash around her middle is also lapis blue. The knee-length tutu has layers of light fabric, and seems to fly up behind her. She wears a black choker necklace and a black bracelet on each wrist. She holds a white object, perhaps a lacy handkerchief, in her right hand at her waist. Her other arm, closer to us, hangs down by her side as she touches the tutu. The background is painted with strokes of spring, sage, and pine green with touches of teal blue. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “A. Renoir. 74.”
Auguste Renoir, The Dancer, 1874, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.72

The Dancer

Auguste Renoir · 1874 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.72

Bibliography

1920

  • "La Collection Deudon." Le Bulletin de la vie artistique (1 May 1920): 306.

1989

  • Distel, Anne. "Charles Deudon (1832-1914): collectionneur." Revue de l'art 1989:58+

  • Distel, Anne. Les collectionneurs des impressionists: Amateurs et marchands. Paris, 1989:157-160