31. François Bonvin, Up from the Cellar
| Artist | François Bonvin, French, Paris 1817–Saint-Germain-en-Laye 1887 |
| Title, Date | Up from the Cellar (La sortie de la cave), 1857 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 17 1/2 × 13 in. (44.5 × 33 cm) |
| Inscriptions + Marks | Lower right: F. Bonvin 1857 |
| Provenance | [Cottier and Co., New York]; [Victor G. Fischer Art Company of Washington, D.C., until 1912; (sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, February 19–23, 1912, no. 349, for $375)]; Howard J. Jackman, 1924; Richard S. Schneiderman, until 1970; [possibly Wheelock Whitney Gallery, New York]; to Gabriel and Yvonne Weisberg, Minneapolis (until 2015; given to Mia) |
| Exhibition History | "François Bonvin, 1817–1887: An Exhibition of Paintings," Wheelock Whitney and Co., New York, April 26-May 24, 1984; "Reflections on Reality: Drawings and Paintings from the Weisberg Collection," Mia, 2022–23 |
| References | Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, "French Realism and the Dutch Masters: The Influence of Dutch Seventeenth-Century Painting on the Development of French Painting between 1830 and 1870" (Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker & Gumbert, 1974), p. 40, no. 60, ill.; Gabriel P. Weisberg, "Bonvin," trans. André Watteau (Paris: Éditions Geoffroy-Dechaume, 1979), no. 22; "François Bonvin, 1817–1887: An Exhibition of Paintings," Wheelock Whitney and Co. (New York, 1984), no. 4 |
| Credit Line | Gift of Gabriel P. and Yvonne M.L. Weisberg in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Minneapolis Institute of Art 2015.83.1 |
François Bonvin’s paintings, drawings, and prints often depict women doing chores. We see them pouring water, cutting bread for the family meal, ironing, or, as in this painting, fetching a container of wine. The setting of Up from the Cellar is likely one Bonvin knew by heart: the background resembles the inn owned by his father. Located in Vaugirard, just outside Paris, the inn appears in several works by François’s younger half-brother, Léon Bonvin. Léon worked there while developing his own artistic career.
François, a dedicated realist, found his models in the world around him. Picturing the small, routine moments of daily life was not unusual among nineteenth-century painters. In this we see a link to seventeenth-century Dutch painters, who favored settings with heightened realism and themes of familiar daily activity. Dutch artists such as Gerard Terborch and Pieter de Hooch come to mind as possible models. Dutch old master paintings have long been popular with American collectors, and French realist pictures appealed to similar sensibilities.
A skillful printmaker, François also made an etching based on Up from the Cellar (fig. 1). When transferring the image to the printing plate, he took the opportunity to give the woman a greater presence, increasing the size of her bonnet and placing her feet so that she emerges less timidly.
GPW