''In the Conservatory'' () also known as In the Greenhouse, is an 1881 painting by French artist
Albert Bartholomé (1848-1928). It is a full-length portrait of Bartholomé's wife, Prospérie de Fleury, wearing a purple and white dress while standing in the open door of a
conservatory. It was exhibited at the Salon of the
Société des Artistes Français
The Société des Artistes Français (, meaning "Society of French Artists") is the association of French painters and sculptors established in 1881. Its annual exhibition is called the "Salon des artistes français" (not to be confused with the ...
in 1881. The painting shares elements of
Classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...
in the style of ceremonial portraits,
Realism in the style of
Jules Bastien-Lepage
Jules Bastien-Lepage (1 November 1848 – 10 December 1884) was a French painter closely associated with the beginning of naturalism, an artistic style that grew out of the Realist movement and paved the way for the development of impressioni ...
(1848-1884), and
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
in the style of
Gustave Caillebotte
Gustave Caillebotte (; 19 August 1848 – 21 February 1894) was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more Realism (arts), realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was kno ...
(1848-1894).
[Dans la serre](_blank)
Albert Bartholomé (1848-1928). Musées d'Orsay. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
Prospérie died in 1887, devastating the artist.
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. Degas is e ...
(1834–1917) was good friends with the couple and convinced Bartholomé to become a sculptor to deal with his sadness, beginning with the creation of a monument for his wife's grave. Bartholomé switched permanently to sculpture and never painted again after 1886. After her death, he saved the dress Prospérie wore in the painting. The Charles and André Bailly gallery preserved the dress and donated it to the Musée d’Orsay in 1991.
The painting is sometimes exhibited along with the dress, and they both toured the world in 2013 as part of the "Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity" exhibition.
[Groom, Gloria Lynn (2012). ''Impressionism, Fashion, & Modernity''. Art Institute of Chicago. . .]
Related works
File:The Artist's Wife (Périe, 1849–1887) Reading MET DP275102.jpg, ''The Artist’s Wife'' (1883). Prospérie reading.
File:Edgar Degas - The Conversation - 1983.7.7 - Yale University Art Gallery.jpg, ''The Conversation'' (1885) by Edgar Degas. Prospérie on the left.
File:Crépy-en-Valois (60), monument aux morts (détail), devant l'église, hameau de Bouillant.jpg, Prospérie's grave sculpted by Bartholomé
References
Further reading
*Musée d'Orsay. (1996).''De l'Impressionnisme à l'art nouveau: acquisitions du Musée d'Orsay: 1990-1996''. Réunion des musées nationaux. . .
*Whitmore, Janet (Spring 2014)
"Exhibition review of Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity" ''Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide''. Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art. 13(1).
External links
*
Description' at the
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...
{{Musée d'Orsay
19th-century portraits
Paintings in the Musée d'Orsay
Portraits of women
1881 paintings