Artwork
Girl with Cherries
Girl with Cherries is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Eva Gonzalès. It dates from 1870 and is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts a young girl seated before a dark background, dressed in black and white attire with a matching hat.
The painting depicts a young girl seated before a dark background, dressed in black and white attire with a matching hat. She leans against a table holding five cherries and a knife in her left hand. Although her body is oriented to the right, she turns her head to look directly at the viewer.
The composition focuses on this figure and the fruit she presents, characteristic of the artist's figure painting style.
Technique & Style
The painting is executed in oil on canvas, employing a smooth brushwork that renders the figure with delicate realism. The vertical format measures approximately 56.2 cm in height and 47.4 cm in width, and the composition features a young girl seated on a chair, her gaze directed toward the viewer as she holds a knife and five cherries on a table. She is dressed in black and white with a matching head covering, set against a dark background that emphasizes her presence. The work belongs to the figure painting genre and exemplifies a portrait-like approach typical of Gonzalès' style.
History & Provenance
Girl with Cherries was painted by Eva Gonzalès around 1870 in oil on canvas. The work entered the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1940 through purchase. It has remained in the museum's holdings since that acquisition.
The painting was discussed by Frederick A. Sweet in a 1940 article in the Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, which appeared in the September–October issue of volume 34, on pages 73–75, coinciding with the year of acquisition.
Eva Gonzalès's Girl with Cherries is held in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois, United States. The museum acquired the painting in 1940, and it has remained in their custody since that time. The work is cataloged as an oil on canvas figure painting created in 1870.
Frederick A. Sweet documented the acquisition and the work in the September–October 1940 issue of the Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago. While the sources confirm its long-term residence at the museum, no specific accession number or detailed exhibition history beyond the 1940 publication is provided in the available records.
Context
Girl with Cherries, painted by Eva Gonzalès around 1870, occupies a notable position within the artist's small but closely studied body of work. The painting has been the subject of dedicated scholarship, most prominently Frederick A. Sweet's article "'Girl with Cherries' by Éva Gonzalès," published in the Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1940, the same year the institution acquired the canvas. The work is also catalogued within The Eva Gonzalès Catalogue Raisonné Project, underscoring its standing in the scholarly effort to document Gonzalès's oeuvre.
The painting is associated with the broader context of nineteenth-century French painting and Impressionism, as reflected in its placement within reference works on the period. Its acquisition by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1940 secured its place in an American public collection, where it has continued to be examined as a representative example of Gonzalès's portrait practice.
Overview
Girl with Cherries is a 1870 oil painting by Eva Gonzalès, a French Impressionist artist. It is part of the Art Institute of Chicago's collection.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Eva Gonzalès (19 April 1847 – 6 May 1883) was a French Impressionist painter. She was one of the four most notable female Impressionists in the nineteenth century, along with Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), Berthe Morisot…
