皮耶·奧古斯特·雷諾瓦

Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris

Mme Pierre Dubied, Neuchâtel

Wildenstein & Co., Ltd., New York (acquired from the above in 1957)

Acquired from the above in 1958

Guy-Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Renoir, Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, Paris, 2014, vol. V, no. 3685, illustrated p. 58

Very good condition. The canvas is relined. The impasto is thick and intact. Under UV light, no evidence of retouching.
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.
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A lush bouquet of anemones in full bloom dominates Renoir's canvas from circa 1915. Renoir painted his first still lifes in the 1860s, and they were a subject he returned to throughout his career. In part this was due to the financial security they provided – like Monet he often turned to them in his early years as a means of supporting himself – but the subject also provided endless opportunity for technical experimentation. His still lifes show the same exuberant brushwork and intuitive understanding of color that define his best portraits and landscapes. In Bouquet d’anémones Renoir achieves a wonderful spontaneity through a combination of free, looser brushstrokes and the interplay of color and light that fill the composition.

It is not surprising that the subject of a floral still-life appealed to Renoir. He had begun his career painting flowers on porcelain for the Sèvres workshop, and like a number of his fellow Impressionists he had often turned to flower-filled gardens as an ideal subject for his experimentations with colour and light. As was noted at the time of a retrospective exhibition in 1988: "For an artist enamoured with color, flowers provide a perfect subject – infinitely varied, malleable to any arrangement. Several of Renoir's most beautiful paintings are flower pieces. Renoir painted many pictures of flowers in addition to the more numerous figures and landscapes. Flowers appear frequently in his paintings as hat decorations or as part of the landscape behind figures even when they are not the main motif. Renoir himself said that when painting flowers he was able to paint more freely and boldly, without the mental effort he made with a model before him" (Renoir Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), Nagoya City Art Museum, 1988, p. 247).