Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939)

In the Boudoir relates to a much larger work of the same title by Frederick Frieseke in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California. In Ilene S. Fort's and Michael Quick's catalogue of the museum's collection, they discuss both paintings, "In the Boudoir [1914, Los Angeles County Museum of Art] is typical of the many informal interior scenes Frieseke painted throughout his career. Although he much preferred to paint outdoors, the American public of the 1910s more readily bought his boudoir scenes of women involved in their toilette or in some other feminine activity...In this painting, as in many of Frieseke's interiors of the 1910s, the model [Jeanne Savoy] lounges in a room decorated with elegant French rococo furniture and an oriental carpet. In contrast to the figure's restful pose, the scene is alive with decorative patterning. Frieseke's interior is similar to those of Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940). Both artists often presented their figures in corners of rooms, viewing them diagonally and from a slightly elevated viewpoint. The floor tilts up, flattening the space of the room and thereby emphasizing the painting as an arrangement of flat shapes and patterns...There exists a smaller almost exact version of In the Boudoir painted in a stronger palette. Frieseke occasionally painted smaller versions of completed paintings he admired." (American Art: A Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection, Los Angeles, California, 1991, p. 253).


This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Frieseke's work being compiled by Nicholas Kilmer, the artist's grandson, and sponsored by Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York.