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Lot 27
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR(1841-1919)Femme nue assise et étude de femme
15 May 2025, 12:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$165,600 inc. premium
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PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919)
Femme nue assise et étude de femme
stamped with the artist's signature (Lugt 2137b; lower right)
oil on canvas
11 5/8 x 8 1/8 in (29.5 x 20.6 cm)
Painted circa 1905
stamped with the artist's signature (Lugt 2137b; lower right)
oil on canvas
11 5/8 x 8 1/8 in (29.5 x 20.6 cm)
Painted circa 1905
Footnotes
This work will be included in the forthcoming Pierre-Auguste Renoir Digital Catalogue Raisonné, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.
Provenance
The artist's estate.
Galerie Barbazanges, Paris (acquired from the above by 1922).
Mr. T. Collection, London; his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 2, 1928, lot 37.
Sale: Ader Picard Tajan, Paris, April 9, 1987, lot 83.
Sale: Christie's, London, April 3, 1990, lot 283.
Acquired at the above sale by the previous owner; their sale, Sotheby's, London, June 20, 2019, lot 365.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
Literature
Bernheim-Jeune (ed.), L'Atelier de Renoir, vol. I, Paris, 1931, no. 310 (illustrated pl. 96).
G.-P. & M. Dauberville, Renoir, Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. IV, 1903-1910, Paris, 2012, no. 3493 (illustrated p. 481).
"In literature as well as in painting, true talent can only be recognized in female figures."
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Depictions of females, particularly in the nude, dominated Pierre-Auguste Renoir's oeuvre and have remained synonymous with the French artist to this day. Renoir's fascination with women is particularly evident in his later works, when the French artist shifted away from depictions of modern life in preference for the idealized classical tradition. As Ann Dumas notes: "For Renoir, the nude embodied his ideal of the feminine and the idea of woman as a natural being" (quoted in A. Dumas, Renoir's Women, New York, 2005, p. 72). Consequently, the female nude quickly became the predominant subject matter of Renoir's artistic output, with the male form almost entirely banished from the artist's work after 1886.
In Renoir's stylistic pursuit of a return to the classically inspired nude, his work was heavily informed by that of Titian, Veronese, and Rubens. The influence of the great Venetian masters on Renoir is most palpable in the radiant, velvety surfaces and fleshy, sensuous figures of his mature oeuvre. As seen in Femme nue assise et étude de femme, the short, undulating strokes of thin paint create a vibrating form with full, soft flesh that captures the very essence of femininity. The present work also highlights a clear break from the sharp figural outlines of his earlier works. Instead, Renoir employs painterly, airy brushstrokes to fluidly meld figure with background and expunge all defining features from the sitter. Freed from the weight of naturalistic detail, the supple curvature and rosy coloring of Femme nue assise et étude de femme exudes an idyllic sense of ethereal timelessness that came to define the final two decades of Renoir's career.
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