PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE SWISS COLLECTION
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
BUSTE DE FEMME (ANDRÉE EN CHAPEAU LISANT, LA TÊTE TOURNÉE À DROITE)
LOT SOLD.
873,000 GBP
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Pierre-Auguste Renoir
1841 - 1919
BUSTE DE FEMME (ANDRÉE EN CHAPEAU LISANT, LA TÊTE TOURNÉE À DROITE)
stamped Renoir (lower left)
oil on canvas
39.7 by 50.2cm., 15 5/8 by 19 3/4 in.
Painted in 1917.
Read Condition Report
Read Condition Report
oil on canvas
39.7 by 50.2cm., 15 5/8 by 19 3/4 in.
Painted in 1917.
This work will be included in the forthcoming Renoir Digital Catalogue raisonné, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.
Provenance
Estate of the Artist
Galerie Barbazanges, Paris (acquired directly from the above in 1922-27)
Paul Guillaume, Paris
Madame Paul Guillaume, Paris (by descent from the above after 1934)
Private Collection, New York & Lausanne
By descent from the above to the present owners in 1986
Galerie Barbazanges, Paris (acquired directly from the above in 1922-27)
Paul Guillaume, Paris
Madame Paul Guillaume, Paris (by descent from the above after 1934)
Private Collection, New York & Lausanne
By descent from the above to the present owners in 1986
Exhibited
London, Leger Galleries, L'Impressionnisme, 1938, no. 17
Tokyo, Isetan Museum of Art & Kyoto, Municipal Museum, Exposition Renoir, 1979, no. 82, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, François Daulte, L'Impression dans les collections Romandes, 1984, no. 81
Tokyo, Isetan Museum of Art & Kyoto, Municipal Museum, Exposition Renoir, 1979, no. 82, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, François Daulte, L'Impression dans les collections Romandes, 1984, no. 81
Literature
Bernheim-Jeune (ed.), L'Atelier de Renoir, San Francisco, 1989, no. 618, illustrated pl. 193
Guy Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Renoir. Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, 1911-1919, Paris, 2014, vol. V, no. 4091, illustrated p. 270
Guy Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Renoir. Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, 1911-1919, Paris, 2014, vol. V, no. 4091, illustrated p. 270
Catalogue Note
Painted in 1917, the present work displays the extraordinary richness of tone and texture - a hallmark of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s mature œuvre. The sitter depicted in Buste de femme (Andrée en chapeau lisant, la tête tournée à droite) is Andrée Heuschling, nicknamed Dédée (1900-1979), a local bakery girl who joined the Renoir household in order to help care for the ageing artist, and would be his last model. The year after the artist’s death she married his son, the film director Jean Renoir, and acted in several of his films. Isabelle Gaëtan wrote: ‘From her first meeting with Renoir (between 1915 and 1917 according to accounts), Andrée stood out among the regular visitors to Les Collettes, where she became the painter’s favorite model. She married Jean Renoir in 1920, and four years later began a career as an actress under the name of Catherine Hessling, in one of the first films scripted by her husband’ (Isabel Gaëtan in Renoir in the 20th Century (exhibition catalogue), Galeries Nationales, Paris; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles & Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 2009-10, p. 342). Dédée posed for some of Renoir’s most celebrated late works, including Femme à la mandoline and Le Concert, now in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.
Writing about Renoir’s last masterpiece Les Baigneuses, which reflects the artist’s delight in painting his young model, John House commented: ‘According to Albert André, the beauty of this “superb redhead” was the incentive he needed to undertake his last paintings’ (John House in Renoir (exhibition catalogue), Hayward Gallery, London; Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris & Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1985-86, p. 288). Buste de femme (Andrée en chapeau lisant, la tête tournée à droite) ultimately stands as a testament to Renoir’s superlative ability to capture the beauty of youth in its prime.
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