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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.
In 1907, the year Renoir painted the present work, the artist moved to the warm climate of Cagnes-sur-Mer at the Mediterranean Coast, where he bought the Domaine des Collettes, built a house and lived there for the remainder of his life, making the sun-filled landscape and its surroundings the subject of some of his most beautiful paintings. Renoir had discovered Cagnes-sur-Mer in the late 1880s and returned frequently thereafter. Still able to move freely and without a wheelchair, he painted the local post office in a number of paintings (another painting depicting la Poste is today at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.). The house was well known to him as prior to building his own house, he had occupied an apartment at the top floor.
In the present painting Renoir depicts it on a perfect day with blue skies, a typical Provençal house flanked by trees painted with the light feathery brushstrokes reminiscent of his much earlier landscapes, and even a palm tree in the background. The rich warm southern colours complement the Mediterranean atmosphere.
The first owner of the present work as well as the other Renoir lot 404, Coco écrivant, was Maurice Gangnat, a Parisian collector with an extreme fondness for Renoir's paintings, in particular his small-scale, freely composed landscapes, still lifes and figure studies. From the time he began collecting in 1905 until the artist's death in 1919, Gangnat amassed over one hundred and fifty of Renoir's works, while cultivating a strong friendship with the artist. Gangnat often visited Renoir at Cagnes, where the artist painted his portrait in 1916 (fig. 1). As Jean Renoir later recalled about Gangnat: 'When he entered the studio, his glance always fell on the canvas which Renoir considered the best. “He had an eye!” my father stated’ (J. Renoir, Renoir, My Father, London, 1962, p. 448). Both Vue de la poste and Coco écrivant were sold in the auction of Maurice Gangnat’s collection held in Paris in June 1925, with Vue de la poste later finding its way back into to the family collection via his son Philippe.
In 1907, the year Renoir painted the present work, the artist moved to the warm climate of Cagnes-sur-Mer at the Mediterranean Coast, where he bought the Domaine des Collettes, built a house and lived there for the remainder of his life, making the sun-filled landscape and its surroundings the subject of some of his most beautiful paintings. Renoir had discovered Cagnes-sur-Mer in the late 1880s and returned frequently thereafter. Still able to move freely and without a wheelchair, he painted the local post office in a number of paintings (another painting depicting la Poste is today at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.). The house was well known to him as prior to building his own house, he had occupied an apartment at the top floor.
In the present painting Renoir depicts it on a perfect day with blue skies, a typical Provençal house flanked by trees painted with the light feathery brushstrokes reminiscent of his much earlier landscapes, and even a palm tree in the background. The rich warm southern colours complement the Mediterranean atmosphere.
The first owner of the present work as well as the other Renoir lot 404, Coco écrivant, was Maurice Gangnat, a Parisian collector with an extreme fondness for Renoir's paintings, in particular his small-scale, freely composed landscapes, still lifes and figure studies. From the time he began collecting in 1905 until the artist's death in 1919, Gangnat amassed over one hundred and fifty of Renoir's works, while cultivating a strong friendship with the artist. Gangnat often visited Renoir at Cagnes, where the artist painted his portrait in 1916 (fig. 1). As Jean Renoir later recalled about Gangnat: 'When he entered the studio, his glance always fell on the canvas which Renoir considered the best. “He had an eye!” my father stated’ (J. Renoir, Renoir, My Father, London, 1962, p. 448). Both Vue de la poste and Coco écrivant were sold in the auction of Maurice Gangnat’s collection held in Paris in June 1925, with Vue de la poste later finding its way back into to the family collection via his son Philippe.