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Lot Essay
By the late 1880s, Renoir had developed the definitive style of figure painting for which he is known: the absence of linearism in favour of a subtle colourism based on a foundation of white and rose tones, evident in the rosy pastel hues of Suzanne et Jean. In addition to this stylistic development, the subject of the pastel reflects the artists new-found preoccupation with intimate, domestic scenes, which reflected changes in his personal and family circumstances, and which would characterise his artistic output for the remaining twenty-five years of his life.
The subject of Suzanne et Jean is in fact composed of three parts: the classical and timeless composition of a mother (or maternal figure) and child, as well as a portrait of both Suzanne Valadon, one of the artist's most famous models and mistresses, who was by this time an artist in her own right, and the infant Jean Renoir, the artist's second son by his wife, Aline Charigot. Valadon had been the model for some of Renoir's most famous paintings, including Danse à la ville, 1883 (Wildenstein no. 1000; Musée d'Orsay, Paris), and she had also been Renoir's mistress, given birth to her illegitimate son, Maurice Utrillo, and this image of her holding Renoir's son is striking in light of the rumours there had been that Renoir was the father, although in reality this seems highly unlikely. In fact Renoir went on to marry Aline Charigot, who had been the model for Danse à la campagne, 1883 (Wildenstein no. 999; Musée d'Orsay, Paris), the pendant to the Danse à la ville .
With marriage and the three sons he had with Aline, Renoir found the most important models in his later artistic career; according to Jean Renoir, here depicted as an infant, the birth of his sons 'devait être la grande révolution dans la vie de Renoir: Les théories de la "Nouvelle Athènes" se trouvaient dépassées par une fossette à l'articulation d'une cuisse de nouveau né. Tout en dessinant son fils.....Renoir rebâtissait son monde intérieur (quoted in M. Peltier, Renoir, sa femme et ses enfants d'abord, Paris, 2009, p. 70). Jean Renoir was born in September 1894, when the family were living in the Château des Brouillards in Montmartre, which is most likely where this pastel was executed. He was later a celebrated film-maker whose memoirs, Renoir, My Father (Boston, 1962) are, alongside Renoir's own paintings and drawings such as this, the best and most affectionate record of the family's domestic intimacy and happiness.
The subject of Suzanne et Jean is in fact composed of three parts: the classical and timeless composition of a mother (or maternal figure) and child, as well as a portrait of both Suzanne Valadon, one of the artist's most famous models and mistresses, who was by this time an artist in her own right, and the infant Jean Renoir, the artist's second son by his wife, Aline Charigot. Valadon had been the model for some of Renoir's most famous paintings, including Danse à la ville, 1883 (Wildenstein no. 1000; Musée d'Orsay, Paris), and she had also been Renoir's mistress, given birth to her illegitimate son, Maurice Utrillo, and this image of her holding Renoir's son is striking in light of the rumours there had been that Renoir was the father, although in reality this seems highly unlikely. In fact Renoir went on to marry Aline Charigot, who had been the model for Danse à la campagne, 1883 (Wildenstein no. 999; Musée d'Orsay, Paris), the pendant to the Danse à la ville .
With marriage and the three sons he had with Aline, Renoir found the most important models in his later artistic career; according to Jean Renoir, here depicted as an infant, the birth of his sons 'devait être la grande révolution dans la vie de Renoir: Les théories de la "Nouvelle Athènes" se trouvaient dépassées par une fossette à l'articulation d'une cuisse de nouveau né. Tout en dessinant son fils.....Renoir rebâtissait son monde intérieur (quoted in M. Peltier, Renoir, sa femme et ses enfants d'abord, Paris, 2009, p. 70). Jean Renoir was born in September 1894, when the family were living in the Château des Brouillards in Montmartre, which is most likely where this pastel was executed. He was later a celebrated film-maker whose memoirs, Renoir, My Father (Boston, 1962) are, alongside Renoir's own paintings and drawings such as this, the best and most affectionate record of the family's domestic intimacy and happiness.