Ritman shared with other American impressionists who worked at Giverny a fondness for intimate boudoir and parlor scenes. Such images were used by FREDERICK CARL FRIESEKE and Ritman for the exploration of formal concerns, such as the action of sunlight in an interior. In Mademoiselle Gaby the young woman is at rest, holding a bunch of flowers that she has just picked. The woman’s static pose, like that of an odalisque, is countered by the movement of the decorative patterns of her dress and the curtains and by the flickering of the broken, impressionist brushwork. In the early 1920s Ritman’s palette deepened, as is evidenced by the warm red and blue of this paintin Early on during his residence at Giverny Ritman persuaded a young model now known only by her first name, Gabriel, to live with him. She served as the figure for many of his paintings and can even be seen wearing the same broad-brimmed hat that is in the museum’s painting in At the Table (unlocated, illustrated International Studio 67 [April 1919]: LXII). Because Gaby was painted so often and Ritman created at least one other very similar interior scene, the exhibition records of Mademoiselle Gaby are difficult to verify. This painting may have been exhibited under the title Gaby at Macbeth Gallery in 1919 and during the next few years at the Paris Salon (1920), the Art Institute of Chicago (1920), and the Milch Galleries (1924).

After the centennial of 1876 the foremost place for American artists to show was no longer New York but Paris. By the late nineteenth century the Paris Salon was the most important exhibition space in the Western world. Artists from many nations would submit their best works to its annual exhibition. The honor of being accepted presaged an artist’s future success. Thousands of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper were presented at each Salon; the exhibition halls were so crowded that paintings were hung to the ceiling with sculptures scattered about. To be hung “on the line” (at eye level) meant a work of art ranked among the best in the show. Since a painting might be skied (hung near the ceiling), many artists painted on a large scale to ensure that their work could be seen no matter where it was placed.
Contrary to earlier periods, American painting in the late 1800s was no longer dominated by a single aesthetic. Munich-school paintings—narrative scenes, often based on literature or history and painted in a dark palette—as well as small figure paintings in the realist tradition were popular in both France and the United States. Large portraits represent the academic style that dominated official taste during this era. Bright, sun-drenched scenes by a more progressive group of artists, the impressionists are diametrically opposite in color, mood, and concept to muted tonalist and symbolist works. Whereas the impressionists celebrated contemporary life with all its transformations, the tonalists and symbolists created hazily illuminated, dreamlike imagery.
Sculptures range from academic examples of idealized mythological imagery to expressions of the newer interest in the emotive potential of the human form. Equestrian bronzes by Frederic Remington demonstrate that at the turn of the century there was a continuing enthusiasm for heroic depictions of the West despite the increased internationalism of American taste.

• About the Era.
• Phil Freshman. Los Angeles County Museum of Art Report, July 1, 1981-June 30, 1983. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.
• Fort, Ilene Susan and Michael Quick.  American Art:  a Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
• Mathieu, Marianne and Dominique Lobstein. Monet the Collector. Paris: Musée Marmottan Monet; Vanves: Hazan, 2017.