Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Galerie de l'Art Moderne, Paris
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owner circa 1950
Thence by descent

Ambroise Vollard, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, tableaux, pastels et dessins, vol. II, Paris, 1918, illustrated p. 67
Guy-Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Renoir. Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles 1895-1902,  vol. III, Paris, 2010, no. 1749, illustrated p. 50

In very good condition; the canvas is lined. The surface is dirty with slightly yellowed varnish. There are some tiny chips of paint loss visible. Under U.V, a few tiny specks of inpainting in the blue in lower left of oysters and in the blue background near left center edge. Otherwise fine.
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Created with careful attention to light and shadow, Nature morte aux citrons et aux huïtres presents a rare subject for the artist and exhibits his ability to invigorate the still-life subject matter. 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 still-lifes. 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 still-lifes. Renoir once commented on the freedom which he found in still-lifes: "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). The perceptual tension between the textured shells of the oysters and the supple skin of the lemons render this work a rare gem among Renoir's still-life paintings and indeed those of the Impressionists as a whole.