Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Mr Paul B. Vogel, Geneva (acquired by 1971)
Sale: Galerie Koller, Zurich, 1st June 1973, lot 3044
Purchased at the above sale by the family of the present owner

Tokyo, Seibu Museum; Fukuoka, Fukuoka Culture Center Museum & Kobé, Hyogo Modern Art Museum, Auguste Renoir, 1971-72, no. 58, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Executed on buff-coloured wove paper laid down on card, possibly by the artist. There are artist's pinholes at intermittent intervals to all four edges with associated nicks to the extreme edges. There are remnants of framing tape to the reverse of all four edges and some supportive tape to the front of all four edges, possibly intrinsic to the support. Apart from a 2cm. repaired tear to the centre of the right edge and a 2cm. repaired tear to the centre of the upper edge, this work is in good condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

After his marriage in 1890 to Aline Charigot, Renoir painted many scenes of daily family life, of his wife and their children in idyllic, rural, timeless settings. In this rare sanguine study, the artist has depicted young girls running through an open field, while the two in the foreground reach down to jostle for a ball as they are playing croquet. The frivolity and playfulness of this scene reflect a sense of contentment in the artist's own life.

The present work is a study for the major painting Jeunes filles jouant à la balle (fig.1) and this composition is one he would return to a number of times, in a pastel drawing and in a subsequent lithograph. However the fluid sanguine medium allows for a palpable sense of movement and contour which is somewhat lost in the coloured pastel. The drawing retains an almost classical monumentality, emphasised by the simple composition of repeated forms, and by the emphasis on line and contour over light and colour. There is a pared down clarity to the figures, which seem to emerge from the background. The delicate white highlights subtly define the girl in the foreground, serving to enhance her presence on the paper. Yet for all its linear simplicity, the drawing still retains the delicate lightness of touch that is so characteristic of the artist's style.

The present work was requested by François Daulte for the exhibition he organized in Japan in 1971 to 1972.


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Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Jeunes filles jouant à la balle, circa 1892, oil on canvas, Private Collection