Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Maurice Gangnat, Paris (sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 24-25, 1925, lot 132)

Hunt Henderson, New Orleans (before 1939)

Louis S. McGehee School, New Orleans (1961)

M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York (acquired from the above in July, 1961)

Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York

Private Collection

Sale: Christie's New York, Impressionist & Modern Paintings,Drawings & Sculpture Part I, November 11, 1997, lot 116

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

New Orleans, Isaac Delgado Museum of Art &  New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., Early Masters of Modern Art, 1959-61, no. 39, illustrated in the catalogue

Julius Meier-Graefe, Auguste Renoir, Paris, 1912, p. 180, illustrated

Julius Meier-Graefe, Auguste Renoir, Munich, 1920, p. 163, illustrated

Julius Meier-Graefe, Renoir, Leipzig, 1929, p. 446, no. 339, illustrated p. 330

Good condition. The canvas is lined. Under UV light, small spots of retouching visible to the leaf on the left.
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.

This exquisite image of tulips in a porcelain vase reveals Renoir's penchant for still-life subject matter. Renoir began his career painting flowers on porcelain for the Sèvres workshop, and his progression with the subject evolved into rich depictions of floral arrangements on canvas by the late 1860s.  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 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).

One of the first owners of this picture was the sugar magnate Hunt Henderson. Based in New Orleans, Henderson was the first collector to bring the works of the Impressionists to the American South, including works by Monet, Renoir and Degas.