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Lot Essay
This painting will be included in the forthcoming Renoir catalogue critique being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute and established from the archive funds of François Daulte, Durand-Ruel, Venturi, Vollard and Wildenstein.
At the time he painted Buste de femme en costume oriental, circa 1895, Pierre-Auguste Renoir was consolidating his artistic position in Paris and strengthening his relationship with the eminent dealer and supporter of Impressionist painting, Paul Durand-Ruel. It was a crucial time in Renoir's career and his pivotal role within the Parisian avant-garde was officially recognized when he was named as the executor of Gustave Caillebotte's bequest of stunning Impressionist paintings to the nation.
Buste de femme en costume oriental is one of a series of intimate works depicting female figures in interiors which became Renoir's principal subject in the 1890s. In these works, Renoir painted women in a variety of poses and different dress, often portraying his subjects engaged in reading, needlework or playing instruments. A particularly fine example of this genre was his Jeunes filles au piano which was purchased by the French state for the Musée du Luxembourg in 1892 (now in the Collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris).
The present portrait perfectly illustrates the artist's ability to capture the delicate nature of the female form. As Giles Néret has remarked, 'Renoir was permanently in love with women and transferred their luminous radiance he found in them onto the canvas' (G. Néret, Renoir: Painter of Happiness: 1841-1918, Los Angeles, 2009, p. 188). In Buste de femme en costume oriental, Renoir depicts his model with her hair pulled back in a bun, the strands glinting, almost gleaming, in a glorious effusion of browns, reds and yellow. The model is gazing away from us, her cheeks flushed pink and her sensual, almost perfect red lips slightly pouting.
In the mid-1890s, inspired by Delacroix's Orientalist subjects and by the impressive canvases by Titian and Velzquez that he had seen in the Prado during his 1892 trip to Spain, Renoir returned to the Algerian themes of his celebrated Odalisque ou une femme d'Alger (1870, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.) and Portrait de Madame Clémentine Stora en costume algérien (1870, Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco). The so-called 'oriental costume' of the present painting is, however, more a vehicle for the artist to replicate textures and to explore rich surface patterns through variegated, bravura brushwork. In contrast to the detail of the face and hair, the loose brushwork of the costume becomes diffuse towards the edge and, in a noted trait of his, Renoir lets his subject merge into the background.
Buste de femme en costume oriental has a distinguished provenance, having formed part of the late Dame Elizabeth Taylor's esteemed collection of Impressionist and Modern paintings.
At the time he painted Buste de femme en costume oriental, circa 1895, Pierre-Auguste Renoir was consolidating his artistic position in Paris and strengthening his relationship with the eminent dealer and supporter of Impressionist painting, Paul Durand-Ruel. It was a crucial time in Renoir's career and his pivotal role within the Parisian avant-garde was officially recognized when he was named as the executor of Gustave Caillebotte's bequest of stunning Impressionist paintings to the nation.
Buste de femme en costume oriental is one of a series of intimate works depicting female figures in interiors which became Renoir's principal subject in the 1890s. In these works, Renoir painted women in a variety of poses and different dress, often portraying his subjects engaged in reading, needlework or playing instruments. A particularly fine example of this genre was his Jeunes filles au piano which was purchased by the French state for the Musée du Luxembourg in 1892 (now in the Collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris).
The present portrait perfectly illustrates the artist's ability to capture the delicate nature of the female form. As Giles Néret has remarked, 'Renoir was permanently in love with women and transferred their luminous radiance he found in them onto the canvas' (G. Néret, Renoir: Painter of Happiness: 1841-1918, Los Angeles, 2009, p. 188). In Buste de femme en costume oriental, Renoir depicts his model with her hair pulled back in a bun, the strands glinting, almost gleaming, in a glorious effusion of browns, reds and yellow. The model is gazing away from us, her cheeks flushed pink and her sensual, almost perfect red lips slightly pouting.
In the mid-1890s, inspired by Delacroix's Orientalist subjects and by the impressive canvases by Titian and Velzquez that he had seen in the Prado during his 1892 trip to Spain, Renoir returned to the Algerian themes of his celebrated Odalisque ou une femme d'Alger (1870, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.) and Portrait de Madame Clémentine Stora en costume algérien (1870, Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco). The so-called 'oriental costume' of the present painting is, however, more a vehicle for the artist to replicate textures and to explore rich surface patterns through variegated, bravura brushwork. In contrast to the detail of the face and hair, the loose brushwork of the costume becomes diffuse towards the edge and, in a noted trait of his, Renoir lets his subject merge into the background.
Buste de femme en costume oriental has a distinguished provenance, having formed part of the late Dame Elizabeth Taylor's esteemed collection of Impressionist and Modern paintings.