Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Jean Davray, Paris
Thierry Collection, Paris
Sale: Galerie Charpentier, Paris, June 10-11, 1958, lot 223
Sale: Palais Galleria, Paris, June 5, 1970, lot 61
Wildenstein & Co., New York
Private Collection, New York
Barbara Annis, New York
Acquired from the above in 2004

New York, Wildenstein & Co., Master Drawings, 1973
New York, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, The Nude: Avery and the European Masters, 1977, n.n.

Guy-Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Renoir, Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, 1903-1910, vol. IV, Paris, 2012, no. 3579, illustrated p. 538

Executed on buff colored wove paper. The sheet is lightly time darkened overall. There are a few scattered surface stains throughout. There is a horizontal repaired tear extending from the figure's head to the center of the right edge as well as several smaller repaired tears along the right edge. There is an aproximately one inch band of discolored paper running along the right edge. The extreme edges of the work are reinforced with tape. This work is in generally good condition.
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This monumental study, Gabrielle couchée à la rose, is a preparatory sketch for one of Renoir’s vibrantly executed, masterful late portraits. The finished work, Femme nue couchée (see fig. 1), was the highlight of Renoir’s featured display at the Salon d’Automne of 1905. Renoir was renowned as the finest portrait painter of the Impressionist circle. His portraits of women in particular received overwhelming praise from his contemporaries and were admired for their sweet docility and sensual allure. The critic Théodore Duret later wrote: "Renoir excels at portraits. Not only does he catch the external features, but through them he pinpoints the model's character and inner self. I doubt whether any painter has ever interpreted women in a more seductive manner… Renoir's women are enchantresses" (Théodore Duret, Histoire des peintres impressionnistes, Paris, 1922, p. 27).

This drawing shows the young Gabrielle Renand, the artist's housemaid, governess to his children and one of his favorite models at the time. At first the artist featured Gabrielle in several group portraits with his sons Jean and Coco but, as her relationship with the family became closer, she began posing for Renoir in the nude. The artist’s affection for Gabrielle was undoubtedly reflected in his paintings. By positioning Gabrielle with a flower behind her ear, Renoir flatters his model. He associated the suppleness and fullness of flowers in bloom with the physical beauty of women, and also used flowers as a formal device that highlighted the tones of the model’s flesh. The contrast of the warm delicacy of the rose with Gabrielle’s dark hair and brows makes her appear Mediterranean, as exotic as an odalisque by Ingres or Titian, two artists whose inspiration is obvious in the present work. Renoir’s keen observation of the female form is demonstrated in the impressive foreshortening of the legs and upper arm in this study, as well as the soft curves of the model’s body. This preparatory sketch, equal in size to the completed painting, gives a nearly unprecedented insight into the artist’s working process.