TitleJeanette: A Portrait Study
Artist
Frederick Warren Freer
(American, 1849 - 1908)
Date1879
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 44 1/4 × 26 5/8 in.
Framed: 56 1/8 × 39 1/4 × 3 3/4 in.
SignedSigned upper right and lower left: "F.W. Freer/Munich 1879"
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY, Gift of William Frederick Havemeyer, 1900
Object number473-P
Label TextPainted toward the end of the artist's second stay in Europe, Jeanette exhibits a confident handling of the typically dark Munich palette. Although detail in the costume is suppressed, Freer is able to convey a subtlety of expression and gesture, notably in the large brown eyes, the fleshy puffiness around the full lips, and the light, careless grasp of the muff. When exhibited in the Academy annual of 1884, the painting received positive critical comment. The New York Times reviewer called it "excellent" and "robustly and handsomely done," while the New York Daily Tribune's correspondent took a more activist position: "There is nothing to justify the decision which consigned Mr. Freer's admirable 'Portrait Study,' No. 504, to a corner of the northwest gallery. . . . The familiar 'picturesque' costume is made to serve its purpose well, but we think the artist's success lies in his clear and workman-like rendering of a distinct individuality." This reviewer went on to compare Jeanette favorably with William Merritt Chase's celebrated Ready for the Ride (1877, Union League Club, New York).Several writers on Freer relay a story regarding the sale of Jeanette at auction (presumably the ill-starred Chicago sale in 1880). The painting sold for a very small sum, and the purchaser, ashamed at having paid so little, returned it to the artist.
