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The Complete Works of Philippe Smit
by Andreas Narzt and Florence Castellani

Catalogue entry

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Photo: Christopher Burke Studios, NY; © FdDPS
Additional images
Original frame designed by the artist.
Original frame designed by the artist.
Photo: Christopher Burke Studios, NY; © FdDPS
Series
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Series
Series: Rollinat
Keywords
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Classification: Pastel
Theme: figurative
Medium: Pastel
Support: On cardboard
Year: 1922
PS 232 (P 180)
La châtelaine (The Lady of the Manor)
Alternate titles: De burchtvrouwe; Die Burgfrau; La châtelaine; Lady of the Manor; The Lady of the Manor
1922
Pastel on cardboard
42 11/16 x 54 in. (108.5 x 137 cm) (sight size)
Signed lower right: Philippe Smit; titled, signed, dated and inscribed on the back of the protective backing panel upper right: La Châtelaine/ Philippe Smit/ 1922/ Le silence et l'âme des [choses (hidden by the bracing of the panel)]/ qui veulent garder leurs [secret (hidden by the bracing of the panel)]
On the back: exhibition label Philadelphia on the frame upper center.
Mark & Janice Pennink, USA
Inventories
Inv. T. P., Ptgs etc. at Bryn Athyn, n.d. [c. 1940], Glencairn archives: no. [17] [P 180]: p. [1], The Chatelaine, Smit, 44 x 55 [in.].
Inv. Pitcairn, n.d. [c.1957], n.p., LNC archives: no. P 180: Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, The Lady of the Manor, Smit, Pastel, 42 x 54 [in.].
Inv. LNC, 1984, updated Oct. 1998, LNC archives: no. P 180: p. 3, The Main Residence - Small Living Room, Lady of the Manor, Pastel [1998: Sold, Danny M.], 42 x 54 [in.].
Exhibitions
1923 Sparren
Atelier 'de Sparren', Laren, Netherlands, Philippe Smit, Laatste Werken, October 01–08, 1923, ?, as La châtelaine (see Niehaus 1923).
1923 Fetter
Kunstzaal Fetter, Amsterdam, [unknown title], October 20–26, 1923.
1957 Springfield
The Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, Philippe Smit, An Exhibition of Works by a Twentieth Century Dutch Master, December 01–29, 1957, no. 16, as The Lady of the Manor, Pastel - Circa 1925, 50 x 60 [in.]
1960 Philadelphia
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Collection of the Rev. and Mrs. Theodore Pitcairn, June 17–September 15, 1960, no. 28, Pastel, 42 x 54 [in.], 1925, Lady of the Manor, 11-1960-28 (title and n° on the exhibition label).
Literature & Primary Sources
Philippe Smit 1922
Philippe Smit. ALS to René Massé. Recloses, n.d. [10 June 1922].
Niehaus 1923
Niehaus, Kasper. "Philippe Smit, 'De Sparren', Laren." De Telegraaf (Amsterdam), 04-10-1923, p. 6, as La châtelaine.
Niehaus 1924a
Niehaus, Kasper. "Schilderkunst, Philippe Smit." Maandblad voor beeldende kunsten Eerste Jaargang, n°11 (11/1924), p. 327, ill. p. 325, as De burchtvrouwe.
Vollmer 1953
Vollmer, H. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler des XX. Jahrhunderts. Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, 1953-1962, p. 303, as Die Burgfrau.
Springfield Republican 1957
Smith, Wayne C. "Dutch Artist's Paintings at Museum of Fine Arts." The Springfield Sunday Republican, 08-12-1957, p. 17C, as The Lady of the Manor.
Notes

"[…] Malgré ma Maladie de cette hiver/ j’ai beaucoup travailler. Mais la vie de/ Paris me fatigue beaucoup. Ma santé/ n’ai [est] pas encore ce que j’était auparavant/ enfin pourvu que je peut rendre mes rêves/ et de temps a autres aller vers cette divines forêts quelles beauté! […] ici il y a eu de grand changement. nous/ avee [avons] transformé la grand[e] pièce/ pour avoir plus de place pour les tableaus. […] J’ai un grand pastel un Clair de Lune/ avec un Châtelaine àccoudé[e] a son balcon/ contemplant ce paysage mélancolique/ et réveur. [...]" [sic] (... Despite my illness this winter I have worked a lot. But life in Paris greatly exhausts me. My health is not as good as it was before. Well as long as I can achieve my dreams and go from time to time to this divine forest, what beauty. … Big changes were made here. We have transformed the large room to have more space for the paintings. … I have a large pastel: moonlight with a chatelaine (lady of the manor) leaning on her balcony contemplating the countryside, melancholic and lost in reverie. ...) (Philippe Smit 1922)

This work is inspired by the poem Le Silence from the volume Les Névroses by Maurice Rollinat, of which the first verses are inscribed on the back of the painting:1

Le silence est l'âme des choses
Qui veulent garder leur secret.
Il s'en va quand le jour paraît,
Et revient dans les couchants roses.

Il guérit des longues névroses,
De la rancune et du regret.
Le silence est l'âme des choses
Qui veulent garder leur secret.

À tous les parterres de roses
Il préfère un coin de forêt
Où la lune au rayon discret
Frémit dans les arbres moroses :
Le silence est l'âme des choses.

1. Maurice Rollinat, Les Névroses, Paris: G. Charpentier, 1883, p. 19.

Record last updated April 20, 2017. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Narzt, Andreas and Castellani, Florence. "La châtelaine (The Lady of the Manor), 1922 (PS 232)." In The Complete Works of Philippe Smit. www.philippesmit.com/catalogue/entry.php?id=232 (accessed on May 9, 2025).