Woman Before a Mirror
Artist
Louis Ritman
(American, 1889 - 1963)
Date1918
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions36 1/4 x 36 1/4 in.
ClassificationsOil Painting
Credit LineGift of the Estate of Miss Frances Whittlesey
Terms
Object number1972.31
DescriptionExecuted during Ritman's "high Impressionist" period of the late teens, the New Britain painting is typical of his best Giverny canvases. (1) The subject, seated and facing the viewer, is partially reflected in a large mirror, which reflects a simple but comfortable interior. Ritman has aligned the compositional elements parallel to the picture plain to emphasize the painting's flatness and decorative qualities, created by the jumble of colors and patterns in the model's clothing and a variety of square, elongated, and flecked brushstrokes. No surface remains smooth--even the olive wallpaper is flecked with periwinkle blue dots and the paint itself reveals a slightly rough texture. Ritman's style changed during the Giverny years, from more finished fluid evocations of young womanhood to a preoccupation with light, texture, palette, and decorative surfaces. As contemporary critics noted, Ritman's canvases reveal the influence of Frieseke, who wove a colorful tapestry of light and color in his evocations of women in flower gardens dotted with dappled sunlight. Yet many of Ritman's paintings, especially this one, go beyond Monet's and Frieseke's elaborate tapestry of color, recalling the decorative interiors of Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, and Edouard Vuillard and the patchy brushwork of Paul Cézanne.
While Ritman's style varied over the years, his subjects remained remarkably consistent. "Woman before a Mirror", painted at the end of his Giverny period, is a variation on "Pink and Blue" (1913; Private collection), in which the same model sits moodily, with crossed arms, next to a window. The woman may be Gaby, a favorite model whom Ritman painted many times. Throughout his paintings of the teens she often appears in the same settings, wearing the same ruffled, dotted, and blue-trimmed summer frock, either sewing, reading, walking in the garden, rowing on the pond, or dressing in the boudoir.
MAS
Bibliography:
C. H. Waterman, "Louis Ritman," "International Studio 67" (April 1919): lxii-lxiv; Nicole DeFleur, Louis Ritman, 1892-1963: "American Painter" (Random Lake, Wisc.: Times Publishing, 1967); "The Paintings of Louis Ritman" (1889-1964) (Chicago: Signature Galleries, 1975); Richard H. Love, "Louis Ritman, from Chicago to Giverny: How Louis Ritman Was Influenced by Lawton Parker and Other Midwestern Impressionists" (Chicago: Haase-Mumm Publishing, 1989); William H. Gerdts, "Monet's Giverny: An American Impressionist Colony" (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993).
Notes:
1 . Ritman's high Impressionist period is defined in Love, "Louis Ritman", pp. 223-29.
On View
On view
