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Your galleryHesitation (Madame Monteaux?)
Look first
- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Look at the hand held near the woman’s chest, then follow the blue dress down to the pale sheet lying on the floor.
The museum’s title leaves the proposed identification as Madame Monteaux uncertain. Stevens surrounds the standing woman with a closed door, rich fabric, and carefully placed furnishings. Those objects suggest possibilities without explaining a complete story; the paused gesture gives the scene its sense of hesitation.
Oil on panel · 55.5 × 43.2 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Realism
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What did you draw first? What did you leave out?
Details and source
- Museum title
- Hesitation (Madame Monteaux?)
- Artist
- Alfred Stevens (Belgian, 1823–1906)
- Date
- c. 1867
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 55.5 × 43.2 cm (21 7/8 × 17 in.); Framed: 68 × 56.5 × 7 cm (26 3/4 × 22 1/4 × 2 3/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.