- 340
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Description
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Étude de baigneuses
- stamped Renoir (lower left)
- oil on canvas
- 46.1 by 55.4cm., 18 1/8 by 21 3/4 in.
Provenance
Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London
Private Collection, United Kingdom (acquired from the above in 1976)
Thence by descent to present owner
Exhibited
Montreal, W Scott and Son, Exhibition of Paintings by French Masters of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 1937, no. 48
London, Marlborough Gallery, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1951, no. 43
Literature
Guy-Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Renoir. Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, 1911-1919, Paris, 2014, vol. V, no. 4289, illustrated p. 394
Condition
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
John House writes the following on Renoir's fascination with the subject of the female nude in outdoor settings: ‘On his travels Renoir painted many landscapes and informal outdoor subjects, but his more serious efforts were reserved for themes which tread the borderline between everyday life and idyll-themes with obvious echoes of eighteenth century art. He painted a long series of nudes, mainly young girls in outdoor settings, whom in a letter he called his 'nymphs.' Mainly single figures at first, he brought them together in groups around 1897 in several pictures of girls playing which translate the subject of the 1887 Bathers into a fluent informality very reminiscent of Fragonard's Bathers (Musée du Louvre, Paris)’ (John House in: Renoir (exhibition catalogue),The Hayward Gallery, London, 1985, pp. 250-51).