Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the artist before August 1891)

Paul Durand-Ruel, Paris

Marie-Louise d'Alayer (née Durand-Ruel), Paris (acquired by 1958)

Sam Salz, New York (acquired from the above circa 1965)

Mr. & Mrs. Philip Levin, New York (acquired from the above in April, 1968)

Janice Levin, New York (a gift from the above in 2001 and sold: Christie's, New York, November 9, 2006, lot 336)

Acquired at the above sale

Paris, Durand-Ruel, Exposition A. Renoir, 1892, no. 32 (titled Maison à Pourville)

Paris, Durand-Ruel, Paysages par Claude Monet et Renoir, 1908, no. 59

Paris, Durand-Ruel, Paysages par Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Renoir et Sisley, 1933, no. 29

London, Royal Academy of Arts, Landscape in French Art, 1950, no. 265

Paris, Durand-Ruel, Hommage à Renoir, 1958, no. 20 (titled Pourville, Le Châlet de Pierson)

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Collects, 1968, no. 181

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Janice H. Levin Collection of French Art, 2002-03, no. 13, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Birmingham, The Birmingham Museum of Art; Reno, The Nevada Museum of Art;  Memphis, The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Grand Rapids, The Grand Rapids Art Museum; Spokane, The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture; Cincinnati, The Taft Museum of Art; Grinnell, The Faulconer Gallery & Vero Beach, The Vero Beach Museum,  An Impressionist Eye: Painting and Sculpture from the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, 2004-06, no. 21

Julius Meier-Graefe, Renoir, Leipzig, 1929, no. 154, illustrated p. 159

Elda Fezzi, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Renoir, période impressionniste 1869-1883, Paris, 1985, no. 351, illustrated p. 103

Guy-Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Renoir, Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. 2, Paris, 2009, ilustrated p. 139

This work is in good condition. Canvas is lined. Under UV light scattered inpainting is visible in the sky including two feathery horizontal lines in upper right corner, measuring approximately seven inches long each. Inpainting is also visible in the upper left and right corners to address frame abrasion. One tiny spot of inpainting is visible on the roof of the house at extreme right, otherwise fine.
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.

The early 1880s were a particularly fruitful time for Renoir, during which he began to achieve a degree of economic success. He travelled extensively at this time in North Africa, Jersey, Guernsey, and Italy, exhibited at the Salons from 1881 to 1883 and painted some of his most famous compositions including Le Déjeuner des canotiers and La Danse à Bougival. Unlike his colleagues who depicted laborers in landscapes, Renoir preferred a different mode that focused on figures at leisure.

Le Châlet de Blanche Pierson à Pourville was painted during one of Renoir's stays with Paul Bérard, an embassy secretary who hosted Renoir for many summers in the late 1870s and early 1880s at his home, the Château de Wargemont.

Nearby Pourville was an increasingly popular destination for Parisians during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The present composition depicts the house that the famous French actress, Blanche Pierson, had taken for the summer of 1882. Pierson came from a family of actors, taking her first role on stage at the age of 11. Reknowned for her talent as well as for her beauty, her role in the 1872 production of La Dame aux Camélias cemented her reputation. "The French actress Blanche Pierson....was already known on the Paris stage for her astonishing beauty, which added conviction to her amusing interpretations of coquette and ingénue roles in contemporary plays (Richard Shone, The Janice H. Levin Collection of French Art, New York, 2002, p. 54)" [fig.1]. By 1882 when Renoir painted her vacation home, she was an established success.

The present landscape was one of five works by Renoir in the collection of Janice H. Levin, an important New York philanthropist and art collector, who donated a portion of her collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her collection, started with her husband in the late 1960s and continued by her after his death in 1971, focused on Impressionist works that depict figures at leisure, in both landscapes and interiors.