The Black Lace Dress (Portrait of the Artist's Wife)

Images(2)

The Black Lace Dress (Portrait of the Artist's Wife)

Artist Julian Alden Weir American, 1852–1919

Date1885

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensionsheight and width: 36 1/8 × 29 1/8 in. (91.8 × 74 cm)
frame: 49 3/4 × 42 3/4 × 5 in. (126.4 × 108.6 × 12.7 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of Ann and Jim Goodnight

Object number2016.20

On View

On view

Provenance**Created United States, 1885; collection of the artist; to daughter, Caroline Weir [1] Ely (1884–1973), Old Lyme, CT, 1919; to daughter, Anna Weir Ely [2] Smith (d. 1998), 1973; to daughter, Carol Bick Smith, 1998; [Debra Force Fine Art, New York, 2015]; sold to NCMA, 2016.

[1] Mrs. George Page
[2] Mrs. Gregory
Published References“The Prize Fund Exhibition,” Art Amateur 13 (June 1885), 8.

Joseph B. Millet, Julian Alden Weir: An Appreciation of His Life and Works (New York: The Century Club, 1921), 126 (as Portrait of a Lady in a Black Lace Dress).

Dorothy Weir Young, The Life and Letters of J. Alden Weir (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960), 171, illus. (b-w) fig. 8 (as Lady in a Black Lace Dress).

Robert Spence, “J. Alden Weir 1852–1919) in Norman A. Geske, The Etchings of J. Alden Weir (exhibition catalogue) (Lincoln: Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, 1967), unpaginated.

Doreen Bulger Burke, J. Alden Weir: An American Impressionist (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1983), 103, illus. (b-w) fig. 3.21.

Vivien Raynor, “Impressionist’s Views of Branchville Are Gathered at the Benton Museum,” New York Times (July 28, 1991).

Capturing Personality: Faces from the 18th–20 Centuries (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Debra Force Fine Art, Inc. 2016), cat. unpag.: discussed and illus. (color).
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, American Art Association of New York, “Prize Fund Exhibition,” April 20–May 1885, no. 53 (as Portrait of a Lady).

Boston, MA, Museum of Fine Art, “Paintings by American Artists Contributed to the Prize Fund Exhibition of the American Art Association, New York, 1885,” February 1886, no. 138 (as Portrait of a Lady). NOTE: The painting presumably traveled with the exhibition to Louisville, KY, Kentucky Polytechnic Society, and Saint Louis, MO, Saint Louis Museum of Fine Arts, 1886.

Brooklyn, NY, Brooklyn Museum, “Leaders of American Impressionism: Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, John H. Twachtman, J. Alden Weir,” October 15–November 28, 1937, no. 74 (as The Black Lace Dress), illus. (b-w) pl. X.

New York, NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, “J. Alden Weir: An American Impressionist,” October 14, 1983–January 8, 1984; Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, February 9–May 6, 1984; Denver, CO, Denver Art Museum, June 13–August 19, 1984.

Storrs, CT, William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, “J. Alden Weir – A Place of His Own,” June 4–August 18, 1991.

New York, NY, Debra Force Fine Art, Inc., “Capturing Personality: Faces from the 18th–20th Centuries,” January 28–February 26, 2016, cat. unpag., illus. (color).

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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