The Large Fisherwoman at Low Tide
Possibly Exposition Vuillard, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, November 2–20, 1909, no. 20, as La grosse pêcheuse.
Possibly Coming of Age: Retrospective of the Friends of Art Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, September 12–October 3, 1976, no cat. From Farm to Table: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterworks on Paper, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 16, 2018–March 24, 2019, no cat.
Combing the shores at low tide, the best time for oyster fishing, Vuillard’s fisherwoman wears a creel, a type of wicker basket, over her shoulder for holding her daily catch. Vuillard made this landscape while summering in Saint-Jacut-de-la-Mer, a fishing village in the Brittany region of France. By 1870, the region witnessed the introduction of oyster fishing and farming; the industry has been an economic engine in the area ever since.
Purchased from the artist by Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, stock no. 17689, as La Grosse Pêcheuse à marée basse, October 9, 1909-July 22, 1919;
Purchased from Bernheim-Jeune by Marseille, July 22, 1919 [1];
With Waddington Galleries, London;
Schoneman, New York;
William Inge (1913-1973), New York, by December 15, 1960;
Given by Inge to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1960.
NOTES:
[1] See letter from Bernheim-Jeune to Glynnis Stevenson, NAMA, October 17, 2017, NAMA curatorial file.
Possibly purchased from the artist by Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, stock no. 17689, as La Grosse Pêcheuse à marée basse, October 9, 1909–July 22, 1919 [1];
Possibly purchased from Bernheim-Jeune by Léon Marseille, Paris, 1919 [2];
Probably with Schoneman Galleries Inc., New York [3];
William Motter Inge (1913–1973), New York, by February 1, 1958–December 31, 1960 [4];
Given by Inge to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1960.
NOTES:
[1] Vuillard created two nearly identical versions of The Large Fisherwoman at Low Tide. Their provenance narratives are conflated in the Vuillard catalogue raisonné; see Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval, Vuillard, The Inexhaustible Glance: Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels (Milan: Skira, 2003), no. VIII-335, p. 2:980. It is unclear which version was sold by Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in 1909 as La Grosse Pêcheuse à marée basse. No Bernheim-Jeune labels or inscriptions are present on the verso of the Nelson-Atkins pastel; nevertheless, Mathias Chivot, author of a forthcoming supplement to the Vuillard catalogue raisonné, believes that Bernheim-Jeune owned the Kansas City version, not the version in private hands. See email from Mathias Chivot, independent scholar, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, October 12, 2023, NAMA curatorial files. Special thanks to Darragh O’Donoghue, Tate Library and Archive, and Thomas Graham, Waddington Custot, for their help in detangling the ownership histories of the two pastels.
[2] For the purchaser, see the following letters: Guy-Patrice Dauberville, Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, to Glynnis Stevenson, NAMA, October 17, 2017; Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, to Guy-Patrice Dauberville, Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, July 27, 2023; and Guy-Patrice Dauberville, Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, September 18, 2023. Léon Marseille operated a gallery with Charles Vildrac at 16 rue de Seine, Paris.
[3] Schoneman Galleries Inc. was founded in 1940 by Dr. Joseph S. Schoneman (1885–1970). After the dealer’s death, his widow Irene Schoneman (née Koopmann, 1894–1972) continued the family business until her own passing two years later. It is unclear when Schoneman Galleries closed or what became of its archives. Extant correspondence confirms that Schoneman Galleries shipped The Large Fisherwoman at Low Tide to the Nelson-Atkins on behalf of William Inge on January 6, 1961, suggesting that Inge had acquired the pastel from them. See letter from Joseph Schoneman to Laurence Sickman, January 6, 1961, NAMA curatorial files.
[4] Inge began collecting modern art shortly after his move from St. Louis to New York City in July 1949; see Ralph F. Voss, A Life of William Inge: The Strains of Triumph (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1989), 117. He owned The Large Fisherwoman at Low Tide by February 1, 1958, when his new homeowner insurance policy took effect. See Personal Article Floater—Supplemental Policy, Travelers Indemnity, policy no. DC 6621796, February 1, 1958–February 1, 1961, papers of William Inge, collection of his great-niece Paula Brown, copy in NAMA curatorial files. Special thanks to Sophie Ong, Brian P. Kennedy Leadership Fellow, Toledo Museum of Art, for photographing Inge’s records.
Possibly Exposition Vuillard, exh. cat. (Paris: Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, 1909), 6, as La grosse pêcheuse.
Possibly Donald E. Gordon, Modern Art Exhibitions, 1900–1916: Selected Catalogue Documentation (Munich: Prestel, 1974), 2:349, as La grosse pêcheuse.
Donald Hoffmann, "Tracing the Ups and Downs of the Friends of Art," Kansas City Star 97, no. 2 (September 19, 1976): 4E, as Coast of Normandy.
Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval, Vuillard, Le Regard innombrable: Catalogue critique des peintures et pastels (Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 2003), no. VIII-335, pp. 2:980, 3:1664, 1702, 1714, 1720, 1726–27, 1741, (repro.), as La Grosse Pêcheuse à marée basse.
Antoine Salomon and Guy Cogeval, Vuillard, The Inexhaustible Glance: Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels (Milan: Skira, 2003), no. VIII-335, pp. 2:980, 3:1664, 1699, 1714, 1720, 1726, 1728, and 1741, (repro.), as The Fat Fisherwoman at Low Tide.
Kenneth Brummel, “Edouard Vuillard, The Large Fisherwoman at Low Tide, 1909,” catalogue entry, and Rachel Freeman, “Edouard Vuillard, The Large Fisherwoman at Low Tide, 1909,” technical entry in French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.742.
