Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paris & New York (acquired from the artist in September 1890)
Edwin Chester Vogel, New York (acquired from the above in November 1938)
Sam Salz, Inc., New York
Mr & Mrs William Goetz, Beverly Hills (sold: Sotheby's, London, Sixteen Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William Goetz, 14th October 1970, lot 14)
Private Collection, Zurich (purchased at the above sale. Sold: Sotheby's, London, 4th April 1989, lot 33)
Sale: Phillips, New York, 6th November 2000, lot 4
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Exposition de natures mortes par Monet, Cézanne, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, A. André, d'Espagnat, Lerolle, 1908, no. 47
Venice, Exposition Internationale des Beaux-Arts, 1910, no. 22
St. Petersburg, Palais Youssoupov, Exposition d'Art Français, 1911
New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paintings by Renoir, 1917, no. 7
New York, Durand-Ruel Galleries, Exhibition of Still Life and Flowers, 1927, no. 26
New York, Museum of French Art, Renoir and his Tradition, 1931, no. 20
Toronto, Art Gallery of Toronto, Paintings by Renoir and Degas, 1934, no. 6
San Francisco, The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William Goetz, 1959, no. 50, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Renoir, 1969, no. 71, illustrated in the catalogue
Tokyo, Isetan Museum of Art & Kyoto, Municipal Museum, Renoir, 1979, no. 43, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
London, Hayward Gallery; Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais & Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Renoir, 1985-86, no. 83 (in London), no. 82 (in Paris), illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Hiroshima, Prefectural Art Museum & Tokyo, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Monet and Renoir: Two Great Impressionist Trends, 2003-04, no. 54, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Elda Fezzi, L'Opera completa di Renoir nel periodo impressionista, 1869-1883, Milan, 1972, no. 648, illustrated p. 118 (incorrectly catalogued as belonging to The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco)
Barbara Ehrlich White, Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters, New York, 1984, illustrated p. 189
Elda Fezzi & Jacqueline Henry, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Renoir, période impressionniste, 1869-1883, Paris, 1985, no. 611, illustrated p. 114 
Guy-Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Renoir. Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, Paris, 2009, vol. II, no. 714, illustrated p. 21 

The canvas is lined. Apart from some areas of retouching, mainly in the green background, visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in good condition. Colours: In comparison with the printed catalogue illustration, the colours are overall richer and brighter in the original.
"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."

Renoir's vivid depiction of gladioli and lilies, spilling from their vase and surrounded by succulent fruit, dates from the prime of his career in the late 1880s. The composition exemplifies the Impressionist techniques of rendering light and shadow that Renoir and Monet introduced at Impressionist group exhibitions in Paris. Nature morte, fleurs et fruits, painted when Renoir's career had reached its ascendancy, is a wonderful demonstration of his key style applied to a floral motif.   

What is particularly remarkable in this splendid composition is the artist's ability to replicate the pure luxuriance of a fruit and floral arrangement. As was the case for many of the Impressionist painters, Renoir did not need to rely on the trompe l'oeil techniques that had been utilised by artists for centuries in order to render his still-life so convincingly. Instead, he drew upon his own creative ingenuity and his initial impressions of the image, rendering it with extraordinary freshness. Few artists of his generation would approach this subject with the richness and sensitivity that is demonstrated in this picture and in others that he completed in the late 1880s.  

Durand-Ruel had purchased the present work, together with a related oil of the same date (fig. 1) from Renoir in September 1890. In his discussion of Nature morte, fleurs et fruits, John House wrote about the appeal of this subject-matter: 'Still lifes were one of the Impressionists' most readily saleable commodities. Durand-Ruel bought many still lifes from both Renoir and Monet when he began to purchase their work regularly in the early 1880s; from the late 1880s onwards still life became a regular part of Renoir's stock-in-trade, sometimes in the form of elaborated, fully worked compositions, like the present picture, but often with more casual informal studies' (J. House, in Renoir (exhibition catalogue), op. cit., 1985-86, p. 255).

House further discusses the present work: 'Form and colour alike are carefully arranged here: above the nuanced light colours of the tablecloth, interwoven contrasts of red and green revolve around the blue and orange patterned vase. The forms are clear, mainly defined by contrast with what lies beyond them. The drawing, though, is not precise; the brushwork seeks out the internal rhythms of the various elements, setting their cursive patterns against the unobtrusively brushed verticals of the background. The second peach from the left is a text book example of modelling by colour gradation – from the yellow on its lit side, through orange and various reds to duller mauves and beiges and deeper purples; by contrast, the shinier surfaces of the grapes are modelled by off-white highlights. Renoir was to use the same vase again in two versions of his Young girls at the piano' (ibid, p. 255; fig. 2).

It is not surprising that a floral still-life, especially one as lush and abundant as the present work, would have appealed to Renoir. Both he and Monet had painted several floral arrangements in the early 1880s (fig. 3), and the present work is a continuation of this theme that proved to be so successful for both artists in the first half of the decade. 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. Also, he found the painting of flowers to be helpful in painting human figures' (Renoir Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), Nagoya City Art Museum, 1988, p. 247).

 

 

Fig. 1, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Fleurs et fruits, 1889, oil on canvas. Sold: Sotheby's, New York, 3rd May 2006

Fig. 2, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Jeunes filles au piano, 1892, oil on canvas, Private Collection

Fig. 3, Claude Monet, Chrysanthèmes, 1882, oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York