Young Woman at Her Dressing Table, c. 1912-14

Provenance

Private Collection, Paris, France
Private Collection, New Windsor, New York, acquired from the above, c.1981 Mid-Hudson Galleries, Salisbury Mills, New York, November 14, 2020, lot 73 Private Collection, Washington, DC.
Sale, Freeman’s, Chicago, Illinois, December 7, 2025, lot 23

Literature

Opinion Letter from Miller scholar Marie Louise Kane, March 16, 2021.

Related Works

Sunlight, 1913, oil on canvas, 45 x 57 ½ inches, signed lower right: Miller; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Rêverie, c.1913, oil on canvas, 45 × 58 inches, signed lower right: Miller; Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri

The Necklace, c. 1924, oil on canvas, 30 ¼ x 28 inches, signed lower left: Miller; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.

Note

Richard Edward Miller is best known for his depictions of elegant young women in sun-lit interiors and lush gardens, with Young Woman at Her Dressing Table being a salient example. According to Marie Louise Kane, foremost authority on the work of Miller and author of the monograph, A Bright Oasis: The Paintings of Richard E. Miller, the present work is believed to have been painted in France, likely in St. Jean-du-Doigt, Brittany, where Miller rented a house and studio in 1912. Kane notes that work from this period frequently feature recurring motifs, including white door frames and slatted Venetian blinds, wicker chairs, hand mirrors, long coral necklaces, and draped garments and fabrics as seen in this painting.[1]

Critics quickly recognized Miller as a leading figure of what became known as the Giverny colony, a vibrant international artists’ community with many American painters active from the late nineteenth century until World War I. Miller’s paintings are distinguished by their monumentality, strong sense of design, and vivid color contrasts, qualities that align with his belief that art’s mission was “not literary, the telling of a story, but decorative, the conveying of a pleasant optical sensation.”[2]

[1] Opinion Letter from Miller scholar Marie Louise Kane, March 16, 2021.

[2] Marie Louise Kane, A Bright Oasis: The Paintings of Richard E. Miller (New York: Jordan-Volpe Gallery, 1997), 9.