JOHN MITCHELL

4 through the 1870s, Alfred Stevens reached the heights of his fame and commercial success. In 1869
leopold II, King of the Belgians, recognising the renown of the Brussels-born artist, commissioned
from Stevens a set of four large paintings on panel of The Four Seasons (all oil on panel, 54¾ x 16½ in.
(139 x 42 cm.), Brussels, royal Collection) which were completed by 1876. Other notable paintings
from this rich period in Stevens’ life are Après le Bal (oil on canvas, 38 x 27 in. (97 x 69 cm.), new York,
Metropolitan Museum of Art), which was shipped to the United States soon after it was completed in
1874; the bewitching Meditation or The Japanese Robe (oil on canvas, 16x 13 in. (41 x 33 cm.), Boston,
Museum of fine Arts) of 1872-3 and Souvenirs et Regrets (1873-5) (Williamstown, Massachusetts,
Sterling and francine Clark Institute). the year 1878 marked another highpoint in Stevens’ career,
with fifteen of his works appearing in the Belgian fine arts section of the Paris exposition Universelle.
this earned him the Croix de Commandeur de l’Ordre national de la lègion d’Honneur, his highest
honour to date. By this time, Stevens had counted among his closest friends the leading lights of
france’s literary and artistic worlds, from Charles Baudelaire to the actress Sarah Bernhardt, by way
of Alexandre dumas fils, edouard Manet and edgar degas. A Belgian journalist, Max Sulzberger, who
called on Stevens at home in 1876 described him as having ‘a fine appearance, was tall in stature,
broad shouldered, with an open expression and a pleasant face. effortlessly and unobtrusively he has
become a naturalised Parisian of a good family.’ ‘As elegant with his brush as in his person’ was
another commentator’s verdict on Stevens as early as 1858 (edmond About, Nos artistes au Salon de
Paris (1858, p. 179). Such portrayals of Stevens as a man help one visualize his presence in his studio
and his effect on those around him, whether on his models like victorine Meurent, who famously sat
for Manet as well, or the impression made on visiting dignitaries and customers. One distinguished
American, William Henry vanderbilt, bought his second painting from Stevens in 1879, and was
followed to Stevens’ door a year later by his son, William K. vanderbilt, who bought Le Salon du Peintre
(oil on canvas, 33½ x 45 in. (85 x 114 cm.), United States, private collection).
“the year 1878 marked another highpoint in Stevens’ career,
with fifteen of his works appearing in the Belgian fine arts
section of the Paris exposition Universelle. this earned him
the Croix de Commandeur de l’Ordre national de la lègion
d’Honneur, his highest honour to date.”
the fifty thousand francs paid for that picture by vanderbilt in 1880 has justly attracted much
commentary, for in a way it aptly represents the high-water mark of Stevens’ accomplishment: ‘le
prix, énorme pour l’époque, demandé et obtenu par l’artiste pour ce tableau, atteste la vogue inouïe
que Stevens avait conquise,’ wrote one biographer in 1930 (f.Boucher, ‘Alfred Stevens’ in Art Vivant,
Paris 1930.) [‘the enormous price, unheard of at the time and yet asked for and obtained by the artist,
attests to the extraordinary desirability of Stevens’ work.’] It was roughly the equivalent then of ten
thousand dollars, and, to give an idea of what other artists of the time could hope to achieve, it is worth
remembering that, at the eighth and last Impressionist exhibition at Georges Petit’s Paris gallery in
1886, Claude Monet was delighted to sell several paintings ‘at prices he considered excellent, around
twelve hundred francs apiece.’ The Salon du Peintre brings to a close a chapter in Stevens’ life, for the
new decade was to bring a number of upheavals for the artist.