Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Ambroise Vollard, Paris (acquired from the artist)
Private Collection, Europe

Tokyo, Osaka & Nagoya, Nichido Galleries, La Gloire de l'Art Français, 1972, no. 48
Tokyo, Isetan Museum of Art & Kyoto, Municipal Museum, Renoir, 1979, no. 38

Ambroise Vollard, Tableaux, Pastels et Dessins de Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paris, vol. II, 1918, illustrated p. 180

Canvas is lined. Minor frame abrasion visible around extreme edges. Under UV light: a few strokes of inpainting along right and left edges to address prior frame abrasion, as well as a few small spots around the upper right corner. Otherwise fine, work is in very good 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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

During the 1880s, Renoir increasingly strayed from the prior techniques of Impressionist painting. He felt that the spontaneous application of pigment, without the aid of preparatory sketches or premeditated composition, led to work which lacked the monumentality and permanence which in his eyes marked truly great art. In the later years of that decade he sought to re-align draughtsmanship with painting, and to underpin the rendering of a specific view, under fleeting conditions of light, with a well-controlled composition of receding perspectives and balanced forms.

 

Renoir was determined to create paintings which would rival the old masters. Though he frequently scraped down his canvases in frustration, his confidence never waivered, as evidenced in a letter to Bérard on October 18, 1886: "I believe I am going to beat Raphael, and that people in the year 1887 are going to be amazed" (quoted in Barbara E. White, Renoir: His Life, Art and Letters, New York, 1984, p. 166).

 

Renoir worked with Paul Cézanne at La Roche-Guyon in 1885 and so it is hardly surprising that the handling of the present work is indebted to Cézanne's "constructive stroke" – that is the application of a series of evenly weighted, parallel brushstrokes. Unlike Cézanne, however, Renoir does not completely subordinate the natural view to a two dimensional patterning. He varies the brushwork and application of paint: the permanence of the present landscape is complemented by the more flickering presence of the magnificent tree at left, rendered with the mastery he so admired in his forebears.