Young Woman Weaving a Wreath of Flowers

When this canvas was auctioned at the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris in December 1894, the sale catalogue listed it under a single word, Souvenir. By 1908 it was in Boston, owned by Clara Bertram Kimball, who built a picture collection of her own. When she died in 1920 it passed to her husband, David. He died three years later and left 40 paintings to the museum in her memory, writing in his will that they came from the collection made by her and bequeathed to him. The young woman stands on a sandy path with her eyes lowered, working flowers into a garland at her waist. She wears a gold band in her long hair, a dark bodice over a white blouse, and a pale apron gathered up over a dark red skirt. Behind the bushes at the left a pale tower rises against the sky. The museum dates the canvas to about 1866 to 1870.