Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Family of the artist
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (by 1944)
Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, Inc., New York
Acquired from the above in 1990

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Aquarelles, Pastels et Dessins par Renoir, 1921, no. 59
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Modern Drawings, 1944
San Francisco Museum of Art, Renoir, 1955
New York, Charles E. Slatkin Galleries, Degas, Renoir, 1958, no. 57

John Rewald, Renoir Drawings, New York, 1946, no. 82, illustrated n.p.

Executed on cream colored laid paper laid down on board. Scattered pinholes around extreme edges. Sheet is very slightly time darkened with a 1/4 inch mat stain around perimeter. 1/2 inch repaired tear and two filled in pinholes of loss near upper right corner. Colors are bright and fresh, work is in good condition.
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In the spring of 1885 Renoir's mistress Aline Charigot - who later bacame his wife - gave birth to the couple's first child, Pierre. This event transformed the artist's life and art. From that point forward, scenes of domestic bliss became a principal subject in his oeuvre. According to Jean Renoir, "The birth of my brother Pierre was to cause a definite revolution in Renoir's life. The theories aired at Nouvelles Athènes were now made to seem unimportant by the dimples in a baby's bottom. As he eagerly sketched his son, in order to remain true to himself, he concentrated on rendering the velvety flesh of the child; and from this very submission, Renoir began to rebuild his inner world" (Jean Renoir, Renoir, My Father, Boston, 1958, p. 250).

Renoir's third son, Claude was born in August 1901 in Essoyes. By this time the artist 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. The present work, executed nearer to the end of Renoir's life, suggests that the artist is again finding hope and vitality in depicting the rosy flesh of an infant. The tenderness of youth is quietly captured by a father, and the cyclical nature of life is clearly understood by the aging artist. As Renoir himself remarked of these youthful works, "it's such a lovely subject ... I am working for myself and myself alone" (quoted in Colin B. Bailey, ed., Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age, New Haven & London, 1997, p. 224).

Fig. 1: Renior, his wife, and Claude at Le Cannet, 1902. Archives Durand-Ruel, Paris, Jacqueline Besson-André Collection