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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue critique of Pierre-Auguste Renoir being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute established from the archives of François Daulte, Durand-Ruel, Venturi, Vollard and Wildenstein.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted Jeune femme brodant à la fenêtre circa 1900. Shortly beforehand, in the late 1890s, Renoir had moved to Southern France. There, in a newly built house at Collettes, the artist retreated into an artistic world characterise by a sense of Arcadian plenitude. Inspired by the Mediterranean landscape surrounding his abode and comforted by a happy family life, Renoir had started to focus on landscapes, bathers and nudes. More domestic and still rooted into the urban life of the bourgeoisie, subjects such as Jeune femme brodant à la fenêtre offered a counterpart to those more idealised, classical themes. The subject of women knitting and embroidering must have been very compelling to Renoir, as the artist often adopted the theme, even in important portrait commissions. When, in 1882, he was commissioned to produce a portrait of his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel’s daughter Marie-Thérèse, he depicted her sewing (Daulte no. 409; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts). Similarly, two years later, when Renoir was commissioned to do a portrait of banker Paul Bérard’s three daughters, he devised a composition whose tranquillity and peace emanate from the older sister’s intent concentration on her sewing (Daulte no. 457; Nationalgalerie, Berlin).
In the early 1910s, Renoir found a fervid supporter and generous collector in the figure of Dr Albert C. Barnes. In 1913, in a letter to Leo Stein, Barnes had declared, ‘I am convinced that I cannot get too many Renoirs and the next time I’m in Paris I’m going to go after some more’ (quoted in M. Lucy & J. House, Renoir in the Barnes Foundation, London, 2012, p. 21). Indeed, by the end of 1916 – only four years after his first purchase of a work by Renoir - his collection included 60 works by the artist. Jeune femme brodant à la fenêtre was among the works Barnes bought in 1916 from Durand-Ruel’s gallery in New York. In purchasing works such as this, Barnes was expressing his belief that Renoir’s late work was indeed the most glorious of the artist’s entire career. By the end of his life, Barnes had amassed a collection of 181 works by the artist, the great majority of which dated from the artist’s late period. Having been in the hands of Renoir’s most dedicated, passionate and committed collector, Jeune femme brodant à la fenêtre appears as a tender, lyrical testimony to Renoir’s grand finale.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted Jeune femme brodant à la fenêtre circa 1900. Shortly beforehand, in the late 1890s, Renoir had moved to Southern France. There, in a newly built house at Collettes, the artist retreated into an artistic world characterise by a sense of Arcadian plenitude. Inspired by the Mediterranean landscape surrounding his abode and comforted by a happy family life, Renoir had started to focus on landscapes, bathers and nudes. More domestic and still rooted into the urban life of the bourgeoisie, subjects such as Jeune femme brodant à la fenêtre offered a counterpart to those more idealised, classical themes. The subject of women knitting and embroidering must have been very compelling to Renoir, as the artist often adopted the theme, even in important portrait commissions. When, in 1882, he was commissioned to produce a portrait of his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel’s daughter Marie-Thérèse, he depicted her sewing (Daulte no. 409; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts). Similarly, two years later, when Renoir was commissioned to do a portrait of banker Paul Bérard’s three daughters, he devised a composition whose tranquillity and peace emanate from the older sister’s intent concentration on her sewing (Daulte no. 457; Nationalgalerie, Berlin).
In the early 1910s, Renoir found a fervid supporter and generous collector in the figure of Dr Albert C. Barnes. In 1913, in a letter to Leo Stein, Barnes had declared, ‘I am convinced that I cannot get too many Renoirs and the next time I’m in Paris I’m going to go after some more’ (quoted in M. Lucy & J. House, Renoir in the Barnes Foundation, London, 2012, p. 21). Indeed, by the end of 1916 – only four years after his first purchase of a work by Renoir - his collection included 60 works by the artist. Jeune femme brodant à la fenêtre was among the works Barnes bought in 1916 from Durand-Ruel’s gallery in New York. In purchasing works such as this, Barnes was expressing his belief that Renoir’s late work was indeed the most glorious of the artist’s entire career. By the end of his life, Barnes had amassed a collection of 181 works by the artist, the great majority of which dated from the artist’s late period. Having been in the hands of Renoir’s most dedicated, passionate and committed collector, Jeune femme brodant à la fenêtre appears as a tender, lyrical testimony to Renoir’s grand finale.