A pale-skinned young woman wearing a kimono stands facing our left in a dim interior in this vertical painting. Her black hair is upswept, and her head tilts slightly down with eyes closed. The seat of a wooden, ladderback chair rests against the back of her knees. With her left hand, closer to us, she reaches back to grasp the top rail chair behind her. She holds a folded white and brown fan in her other hand, by her side. Her voluminous robe is fawn brown and trimmed with brilliant scarlet red down the collar and around the hem. The kimono has wide, long brown sleeves that come down past her hips. The red collar extends nearly to her knees, and another slash of red lines the deep sleeve on her extended arm. The robe pools on the floor at her feet. Above the red band along the bottom hem, the robe is painted loosely in patches and dabs of black, cobalt blue, turquoise, ruby red, and pale pink. Light from the upper right gives her peachy skin a golden tinge and highlights the furniture near her, while casting the rest of the room in shadow. She stands in front of a round table draped with a fabric mottled in earth brown and gray, and bordered with a dark brown band filled with smudges of orange and green. A book and a black carrying case or bag are barely visible on the table's shadowy surface. An image framed in light blue hangs on the olive-green wall over the table. The wall to our right, behind the woman, is mostly forest green. The artist signed the lower right in black paint, “Alfred H. Maurer.”

Young Woman in Kimono

Alfred H. Maurer

A pale-skinned young woman wearing a kimono stands facing our left in a dim interior in this vertical painting. Her black hair is upswept, and her head tilts slightly down with eyes closed. The seat of a wooden, ladderback chair rests against the back of her knees. With her left hand, closer to us, she reaches back to grasp the top rail chair behind her. She holds a folded white and brown fan in her other hand, by her side. Her voluminous robe is fawn brown and trimmed with brilliant scarlet red down the collar and around the hem. The kimono has wide, long brown sleeves that come down past her hips. The red collar extends nearly to her knees, and another slash of red lines the deep sleeve on her extended arm. The robe pools on the floor at her feet. Above the red band along the bottom hem, the robe is painted loosely in patches and dabs of black, cobalt blue, turquoise, ruby red, and pale pink. Light from the upper right gives her peachy skin a golden tinge and highlights the furniture near her, while casting the rest of the room in shadow. She stands in front of a round table draped with a fabric mottled in earth brown and gray, and bordered with a dark brown band filled with smudges of orange and green. A book and a black carrying case or bag are barely visible on the table's shadowy surface. An image framed in light blue hangs on the olive-green wall over the table. The wall to our right, behind the woman, is mostly forest green. The artist signed the lower right in black paint, “Alfred H. Maurer.”

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Alfred H. Maurer
Date
c. 1901
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 76.2 × 73.18 cm (30 × 28 13/16 in.) framed: 87 × 82.87 × 5.4 cm (34 1/4 × 32 5/8 × 2 1/8 in.)
Department
CAB
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Edith Newlands Johnston and Janet Newlands Johnston, 1950)

Art Genome Taxonomy

8 tags

Subject Matter

  • Human Figure Both · 100%

    A single standing woman is the dominant subject, identified in the title and clearly visible at the center-right of the composition.

  • Interiors Both · 99%

    The figure is shown inside a furnished room; the catalog describes a dim interior, and the image shows a chair, draped table, wall, and framed image.

  • Related to Fashion Both · 99%

    The title identifies a kimono, and the garment’s wide sleeves, long robe, bright collar, and decorative hem make clothing a major visual subject.

Visual Qualities

  • Dark Colors Visual · 99%

    The room is dominated by deep brown, olive, forest-green, black, and muted gray tones.

  • Bright and Vivid Colors Visual · 98%

    Saturated scarlet-red trim and hem accents, along with blue, turquoise, pink, and red passages near the pooled lower garment, create strong color contrasts.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 100%

    The National Gallery of Art classifies the work as a painting in oil on canvas.

Time Periods

  • 1900 - 1917 Art Metadata · 100%

    The catalog dates the work to approximately 1901.

Furniture and Lighting

  • Chair Visual · 99%

    A wooden ladderback chair occupies the right side of the composition, with the woman’s hand resting on its top rail.

Source & rights

Alfred H. Maurer. Young Woman in Kimono. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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