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).
