Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Claude Renoir, Cagnes
O'Hana Gallery, London
Sale: Sotheby’s, London, June 28, 1978, lot 17
Sale: Sotheby’s, London, June 29, 1983, lot 18
Marisa del Re Gallery, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Hirschl & Adler, New York

Ed. Bernheim-Jeune, L'Atelier de Renoir, Paris, 1931, vol. 2, no. 606, illustrated pl. 70

Renoir was fascinated with painting children, especially his own. His third son, Claude was born in August 1901 in Essoyes. Renoir painted him in a variety of ways, some of them large scaled and posed, but the majority of his paintings of his children capture them unaware, engaging in everyday activities.

By the time of his son’s birth, Renoir was sixty years old and in increasingly poor health.  The birth of Claude brought him great joy, for he saw the baby’s growth and health as an affirmation of life.  In the present work, Claude is a handsome young man of 15, depicted as he incises a piece of pottery.  The concentration on his son’s face, softened by his signature palette and feathery brushstrokes, is captured by his raised eyebrows and fixed mouth.  This very loving portrait is a testament to the bond of father and son, a very special gift to the artist late in life.

Fig. 1 Claude Renoir with Pierre-Auguste Renoir at Les Collettes, 1913, University of California, Los Angeles, Arts Library Special Collections