Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Dr. Othmar & Valerie Häuptli-Baumann, Switzerland
Private Collection, Switzerland (by descent from the above and sold: Sotheby’s, London, June 25, 2002, lot 116)
Private Collection, Switzerland (acquired at the above sale)
Opera Gallery, Paris (acquired from the above)
Acquired from the above in 2004

Aarau, Switzerland, Aargauer Kunsthaus (on loan)

This work is in excellent condition. The canvas is unlined. The pigments are bright and fresh and the surface retains a rich impasto. Under UV light the are a few very minor strokes of retouching to the center of the flowers at the far 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.

Throughout his long and productive career, Renoir consistently returned to floral compositions. The subject provided endless opportunity for technical experimentation, and his flower paintings show the same exuberant brushwork and intuitive understanding of color and movement that define his best portraits and landscapes. As was the case for many of the Impressionist painters, Renoir did not need to rely on the trompe l'oeil techniques that had been utilized by artists for centuries in order to render the flowers so convincingly. Instead, he drew upon his own creative ingenuity and his initial impressions of the image, rendering it with extraordinary freshness. Few artists of his generation would approach this subject with the richness and sensitivity that is demonstrated in his floral pictures. Renoir once said of his flower pictures: "What seems to me most significant about our movement [Impressionism] is that we have freed painting from the importance of the subject. I am at liberty to paint flowers and call them flowers, without their needing to tell a story" (quoted in Peter Mitchell, European Flower Painters, London, 1973, pp. 211-12).

This lush and vibrant painting is a particularly charming example of Renoir’s floral paintings. Anémônes achieves a wonderful spontaneity through a combination of free, looser brushstrokes and the interplay of light and color. The thick impasto and warm palette captures the blooming flowers’ delicacy, and Renoir spoke of how he strove for an improvisatory effect in paintings of this kind: "It mustn’t reek of the model—and yet one should be able to get the feel of nature in it" (quoted in François Fosca, Renoir: His Life and Work, London, 1961, p. 263).