- Title:
- The Present
- Object name(s):
- Picture; Belgian
- Brief description:
- A young woman sits side-on to us. She wears a relaxed but delicate and costly gown, her hair casually caught back in a soft chignon. She looks down, apparently calmly, at a gleaming ceramic statuette of a snarling tiger, poised to pounce. Its expression and stylised pose are reminiscent of mythological creatures in the Japanese art that was of great interest in Western Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century.The woman is slumped, caught unawares. Her head is erect but her lips are firmly pressed together and her eyes are downcast, held by the tiger that glares back at her. Stevens has paid great attention to the detail of its shell-like surface, its arched tail and bulging eyes. It glints in the light -- but not enough to detract from the note in the woman’s hand, about to slide to the floor between limp fingers. What kind of present is this? Stevens leaves the many possible answers to us.
- Collection:
- National Gallery
- Accession date:
- 1917-01-01
- Date - earliest / single:
- 1917
- Date - latest:
- 1917
- Acquisition source:
- Sir Hugh Percy Lane
- Credit line:
- Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917, The National Gallery, London. In partnership with Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin.
- Current location:
- Not on display
- Current reproduction location:
- 2/203/792/400/mid_N-3270-00-000011.jpg
- Dimension:
- Height
- Dimension measured part:
- Overall
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 37.00
- Dimension:
- Width
- Dimension measured part:
- Overall
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 46.00
- Form:
- None
- Inscription content:
- Signed
- Material:
- oil
- Material:
- canvas
- Material:
- oil on canvas
- Object name:
- Picture; Belgian
- Object production date:
- Date - period:
- 1850-74
- Object production date:
- about 1866-71
- Date - earliest / single:
- 1866
- Date - latest:
- 1871
- Object production person:
- Alfred Stevens
- Person's birth date:
- 1823
- Person's death date:
- 1906
- Object production place:
- France
- Object production place:
- Paris
- Other number:
- NG3270
- Other number type:
- object number
- Other number:
- 0G97-0001-0000-0000
- Other number type:
- PID
- Other number:
- NG3270
- Other number type:
- display number
- Other number:
- 000-04NK-0000
- Other number type:
- PID (NG alternative)
- Other number:
- ng33270
- Other number type:
- sort number
- Owner:
- Sir Hugh Percy Lane
- Responsible department/section:
- Main Collection
- Right note:
- To encourage the use and reuse of the National Gallery's collection data, they are released under the following dedications and licences: Structured data (as opposed to narrative texts) are released under a Creative Commons Zero dedication (CC0): https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Descriptions, notes and all other narrative text content are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 licence (CC BY-NC-ND): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
- Style:
- three-quarter length portraits
- Style:
- female portraits
- Style:
- realist
- User's reference:
- National Gallery Catalogues: The Flemish School, circa 1600 - circa 1900
- Reference details:
- 249-50
- Reference note:
- Latest catalogue
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue
- Reference details:
- 647
- Reference note:
- Key bibliography
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- Hugh Lane and his Pictures
- Reference note:
- Select bibliography
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- The Flemish School, circa 1600-circa 1900
- Reference details:
- 249-50
- Reference note:
- Select bibliography
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- Les frères Stevens
- Reference note:
- Select bibliography
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- Exhibition of the Works of Continental Painters at the Gallery, 121 Pall Mall
- Reference details:
- 145
- Reference note:
- Select bibliography
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- The Grafton Galleries
- Reference details:
- 188
- Reference note:
- Select bibliography
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- The Sir Hugh Lane Pictures at the National Gallery
- Reference details:
- 148
- Reference note:
- Select bibliography
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- National Gallery, II: Sir Hugh Lane's Pictures
- Reference details:
- 7
- Reference note:
- Select bibliography
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- Alfred Stevens
- Reference details:
- 33
- Reference note:
- Select Bibliography
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- Loan Collection of Modern Pictures chiefly of the Dutch and Barbizon Schools
- Reference note:
- Select bibliography
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- Hugh Lane : founder of a gallery of modern art for Ireland /edited by Barbara Dawson ; assisted by Logan Sisley, Jessica O'Donnell, and Michael Dempsey.
- Reference details:
- Ill. (p. 167)
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- Alfred Stevens, 1823-1906 : Brussels – Paris /with contributions by Saskia de Bodt … [et al.].
- Reference details:
- Cat. no. 73 (p. 202); ill. (p. 167)
- Reference type:
- reference
Persistent shareable link for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/17f9c470-1b60-3f01-aaf9-7e3920c30a6b
Use licence for this record: CC BY
Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/17f9c470-1b60-3f01-aaf9-7e3920c30a6b, National Gallery, CC BY
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