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Portrait of Madame Clementine Valensi Stora (L'algérienne)

1870

Clémentine Stora (née Rebecca Clémentine Valensi) was nineteen years old, the mother of a toddler and wife of an antique dealer when she posed for Renoir in 1870. Born in Algiers, she belonged to a Jewish family that had migrated to Paris, and for this portrait she donned an ensemble consistent with recent fashions in the Algerian Jewish community: a high-waisted gown with a velvet bodice embroidered in gold thread, a silk or satin sash, and a long striped scarf twisted into a cap concealing her hair. Renoir, who would go on to help found the Impressionist group, here depicted the various textures and sheens of Madame Stora’s ensemble with evident delight, applying color in long fluid strokes. But the artist’s bold, unconventional use of blues and greens for the sitter’s complexion did not please the Storas. Calling the painting “horrible,” they resold it immediately for 300 francs.

Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919)
Title: Portrait of Madame Clementine Valensi Stora (L'algérienne)
Date: 1870
Place of Creation: France
Object Type: Painting
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 33 1/4 x 23 1/2 in. (84.5 x 59.7 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Prentis Cobb Hale in honor of Thomas Carr Howe, Jr.
Accession Number: 1966.47

Stora family, Paris
Sold to Paul-César Helleu, Paris, 1894 [1]
Claude Monet (1840-1926), Giverny, France, by 1906 [2]
By descent to his son Michel Monet (1878-1966), Giverny, France
[Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, by 1938]
[The Lefevre Gallery (Alex Reid & Lefevre Ltd.), London, by 1952]
[Sold to F. Kleinberger Galleries, New York, April 26, 1957] [3]
Sold to Mr. and Mrs. Prentis Cobb Hale, San Francisco, May 6, 1957
Gift to the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1966
Administrative transfer to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1972
[1] Sold after the death of Nathan Stora, husband of the sitter.
[2] Marseilles 1906, no. 52.
[3]See Metropolitan Museum of Art, F. Kleinberger Galleries records, B-C1307: https://cdm16028.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16028coll23/id/17414/rec/3.
Marseilles, Exposition Nationale Coloniale, 1906. “Expositions des Beaux-Arts,” no. 52.

Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, June 10–July 27, 1938. “Renoir Portraitiste,” no. 1.

London, The Lefevre Gallery, November, 1952. “A Group of Fine French Paintings,” no. 14.

Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, 1953. “Renoir,” no. 3 (as “Algerian Woman”).

Los Angeles, The Art Galleries of the University of California, January 20–February 23, 1958; San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, March 7–April 6, 1958. “California Collects: North and South,” no. 33.

New York, Wildenstein & Co., March 27–May 3, 1969. “Renoir: In Commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Renoir’s death,” no. 3.

The Art Institute of Chicago, February 3–April 1, 1973. “Paintings by Renoir,” no. 8.

Denver Art Museum, December 26, 1978–February 18, 1979; New York, Wildenstein & Co., March 14–April 27, 1979; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, May 24–July 1, 1979. “Masterpieces in French Art, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,” no. 35.

London, Hayward Art Gallery, January 30–April 21, 1985; Paris, Grand Palais, May 14–September 2, 1985; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, October 9–January 5, 1986. “Renoir,” no. 17.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, April 10–June 14, 1992; Fukuoka Art Museum, July 1–26, 1992; Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, August 8–September 13, 1992; Yokohama, Sogo Museum of Art, September 23– October 25, 1992. “European Masters from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,” no. 64.

Canberra, Australian National Gallery, November 14, 1992– January 31, 1993; Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, February 19–May 10, 1993; Auckland City Art Museum, June 5–August 29, 1993. Rembrandt to Renoir: European Masterpieces from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, no. 64.

Ottawa, National Gallery, June 27– September 14, 1997; The Art Institute of Chicago, October 17, 1997–January 4, 1998; Fort Worth, TX, Kimbell Art Museum, February 8–April 26, 1998. “Renoir Portraits: Impressions of an Age,” no. 8.

Williamstown, Clark Art Institute, February 16–May 11, 2003; Dallas Museum of Art, June 7–September 7, 2003, Paris, Institut du Monde Arabe, October 7, 2003–January 18, 2004. “Renoir and Algeria.”

Minneapolis Institute of Art, October 18, 2015 – January 10, 2016; London, National Gallery, February 17, 2016–May 22, 2016. “Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art,” no. 30.

Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, October 18, 2016–January 22, 2017; Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, February 7, 2017–May 15, 2017. “Renoir: Intimacy,” no. 4.

Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet, September 14, 2017–January 1, 2018. “Claude Monet Collectionneur.”

Frankfurt, Städel Museum, March 2–June 19, 2022. “Renoir: Rococo Revival,” no. 122.
Vollard, Ambroise, Tableaux, Pastels, et Dessins de Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paris: Ambroise Vollard, 1918, pg. 94, no. 378, repr.

Alexandre, A., “Le Musée des Colonies,” La Renaissance (September 1931), repr. pg. 271.

Alazard, J., “L'Exotisme dans la Peinture Française,” Gazette des beaux-arts, no. 826 (October 1931), repr. pg. 235, fig. 11.

Zahar, Marcel, Renoir, London: House of Beric, 1948, pg. 11.

“Notable Works of Art Now on the Market: Supplement,” The Burlington Magazine 94, no. 597 (1952), pl. XXVI, repr. (unpaginated).

Sutton, Denys, “London explores,” Art News 51, no. 8 (December 1952), pg. 64.

Denvir, Bernard,“The Genius of Renoir,” The Connoisseur 132, no. 533 (November 1953), pg. 107, repr. on cover.

Cooper, Douglas, “Renoir, Lise and the Le Coeur Family: A Study of Renoir’s Early Development–I Lise,” The Burlington Magazine 101, no. 674 (1959), pg. 168.

Howe, Thomas C., “Paintings in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Prentis C. Hale,” Bulletin of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor 17, nos. 5-6 (September and October 1959), pg. 1, repr. pg. 2.

Fosca, François, Renoir, His Life and Work, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1962, pg. 21.

Gimpel, René, Diary of an Art Dealer, trans. John Rosenberg, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966, pg. 62.

“La Chronique des Arts,” Gazette des Beaux–Arts, supp., no. 1176 (February 1967), pg. 101.

Daulte, François, Auguste Renoir: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, vol. 1, Lausanne: Editions Durand-Ruel, 1971, no. 47, repr.

Fezzi, Elda, L’Opera Completa di Renoir nel Periodo Impressionista 1869–1833, Milan: Rizzoli, 1972, no. 53, repr.

Maxon, John, Paintings by Renoir, exh. cat., Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1973, no. 8, repr. (unpaginated).

Raeburn, Michael, ed., Renoir, exh. cat., London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1985, repr. pg. 53, pg. 195, no. 17, repr., entry by Anne Distel.

Nash, Steven A., Lynn Federle Orr, Marion C. Stewart, European Masters from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, exh. cat., Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1992, repr. pg. 159, pg. 252, no. 64, entry by Steven A. Nash.

Nash, Steven A., Lynn Federle Orr, Marion C. Stewart, Rembrandt to Renoir: European Masterpieces from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Canberra: Australian National Gallery, 1992, pg. 168, repr., no. 64, entry by Steven A. Nash.

Schnell, Werner, “Renoir Versuch, über den Orient in den Zalon zu kommen,” Begegnungen: Festschrift für Peter Anselm Riedl zum 60. Geburtstag, eds. Klaus Güthlein and Franz Matsche, Worms: Werner, 1993, pgs. 222-223.

Bailey, Colin B., Renoir’s Portraits: Impressions of an Age, exh. cat., Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1997, pg. 108, no. 8, repr., pgs. 273–274.

Bailey, Colin B., “Portrait of the Artist as a Portrait Painter,” in Renoir’s Portraits: Impressions of an Age, exh. cat., ed. Colin B. Bailey, Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1997, pgs. 31–32, repr. pg. 31.

Sotheby’s, Impressionist & Modern Art - Part I, Auction catalogue, London: Sotheby’s, June 27, 2000, pg. 54, repr. (under lot 15).

Néret, Gilles, Renoir, Painter of Happiness, Cologne: Taschen, 2001, repr. pg. 36, pg. 37.

Christie’s, 19th Century Europeam Art and Orientalist Art, Auction catalogue, London: Christie’s, October 24, 2007, pg. 102, repr. (under lot 98).

Brettell, Richard B., et. al., The Robert Lehman Collection: Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Paintings, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009, pg. 325, repr. pg. 326, under entry no. 97 by Natalie H. Lee.

Jordanova, Ludmilla, The Look of the Past: Visual and Material Evidence in Historical Practice, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012, pg. XXIX.

Benjamin, Robert, “Odalisques and Homages: Renoir’s Studio Orientalism, 1870-1875,” in Renoir and Algeria, exh. cat., eds. Robert Benjamin and David Prochaska, Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2003, pgs. 23, 25, 26, 29, repr. fig. 22.

Alaou, Brahim, ed., De Delacroix à Renoir: L'Algérie des Peintures, exh. cat., Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe, 2003, pg. 228, no. 104, repr. pg. 229, entry by Stéphane Guégan.

Solana, Guillermo, Renoir: Intimida, exh. cat., Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2016, pg. 82, no. 4, repr. pg. 83.

Solana, Guillermo, Renoir: Intimacy, exh. cat., trans. Jenny Dodman, Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2016, pg. 82, no. 4, repr. pg. 83.

Noon, Patrick and Christopher Riopelle, Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art, exh. cat., London: National Gallery, 2015, pg. 134, no. 30, repr. pg. 135, entry by Christopher Riopelle.

Riopelle, Christopher, “Afterlife: Delacroix’s Posthumous Fame,” in Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art, exh. cat., eds. Patrick Noon and Christopher Riopelle, London: National Gallery, 2015, pg. 46.

Betz, Juliane, “Genre Painting & Figures in Costume” in Renoir: Rococo Revival, exh. cat., Frankfurt: Hatje Cantz; Städel Museum, 2022, pgs. 280–284, repr. pg. 307, no. 122.

de Young

Legion of Honor

de Young

Legion of Honor

Portrait of Madame Clementine Valensi Stora (L'algérienne)

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Social Sharing

Provenance

Exhibition History

Bibliography

Lux Aeterna, 1914

The Road Near the Farm, 1871

The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, 1626

3 Sisters, 2022

New York Evening Sun, early 1890s

Self-Portrait, 2007

Of Water and the Spirit 8, 2024

Starego Miasta Square, Warsaw (The Old Town’s Market Square), 1968

Ecology of violence II, 2023