Exhibited: Pieces of an old exhibition label on the stretcher. Presumably from Große Berliner Kunstausstellung 1894, where Wegmann exhibited several paintings, the fourth painting listed in the catalogue, no. 1670, is titled “Dame, im Wald sitzend” (Woman sitting in forest), and it is presumably the present painting. Liljevalchs Konsthall,“De drogo till Paris. Nordiska konstnärinnor på 1880-talet”, 1988 no. 210.

Provenance: Winkel & Magnussen auction 281, 1941 no. 291. Bruun Rasmussen Vejle auction 70, 2000 no. 1072, ill. p. 157.

In 1879, Wegmann had lived and trained as an artist in Munich for 12 years, but in the fall of that year, she traveled together with her friend and fellow artist Jeanna Bauck (1840–1926) to Paris for the first time. Here, she settled for some years and studied among others at the studios of Léon Bonnat (1833–1922), Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904) and Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848–1884). Although she was shaped by the Munich school and the German style of painting, she became very fascinated and inspired by the trends in French art of the time, e.g. Naturalism, plein air painting and the Barbizon School, which she had experienced earlier that year at the Internationale Kunstausstellung in Munich in 1879. The present painting indicates that she was already strongly influenced by plein air painting and the idea of capturing a fleeting moment through new painting techniques when the painting was completed. In this painting, Wegmann has depicted the young woman sitting in nature surroundings, which are only loosely defined in visible, oblique brushstrokes in a multitude of colour nuances, and she has depicted the glint of sunlight with pastose and almost vibrating strokes on the skirt of the dress together with a small quick flash in the temple. It is a beautiful example of her ability to capture the light and her models in a snapshot. Wegman has painted the young woman with greater detail and in an extravagant dress with frills, buttons and ribbons that evoke memories of the fashionable women seen in many French paintings from the period, particularly several works by the French artist James Tissot (1836–1902) come to mind.