Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Ambroise Vollard, Paris (acquired directly from the artist)
Sarah Jane Sanford Panza, Rome & New York
Private Collection, New York (and sold: Christie's, New York, November 11, 1997, lot 103)
Acquired at the above sale

Ambroise Vollard, Tableaux, pastels et dessins de Pierre-Auguste Renoir, vol. I, Paris, 1918, no. 53, illustrated p. 14
Guy-Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Renoir, Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. II, Paris, 2007, no. 1593, illustrated p. 557

Overall, the work is in stable condition. The work is hinged along the top edge on verso. There are five vertical tears along the top center edge. Discoloration along the edges due to window mat. The lower and upper right corners have been repaired and are visible in the catalogue illustration. There are multiple repaired tears along the right edge of the work; the largest of these tears does not exceed ¼ of an inch. The lower left has a 1/8 inch repair. A 1 ¾ inch fill is attached to verso of the lower left corner. There are several very small spots of foxing throughout the composition. The paper is time-stained, but over all the sheet is in stable condition.
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.

In 1882 and 1883, Renoir painted three large-scale canvases depicting a dancing couple: La Danse à Bougival (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; see fig. 1), La Danse à la ville (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and La Danse à la compagne (Musée d'Orsay, Paris). This trio of paintings has been viewed as Renoir’s last, and most accomplished, depiction of urban and suburban leisure activity. Renoir elevates the subject by working on a scale that is virtually life-size, bringing the dancing couple right up to the picture plane and restraining background details in order to make the figures more monumental.

The style of dress and even the identification of the dancehall—Bougival versus the nearby La Grenouillère, for instance—would have created a host of associations and conclusions about social types for the viewers of the day. In this composition, the male figure is clearly paying rapt attention to his partner and leans so closely in that the woman pulls slightly away from his firm grip, looking out toward the spectator. Renoir's focus here is on the depiction of the movement, dress and the expressions of the two dancers.

The model for the male figure was Paul Lhote, an author and Renoir’s friend. Renoir provided a drawing based on the Boston painting to Lhote as an illustration for a short story he published in La Vie moderne in November 1883. The female model was the seventeen-year-old Marie-Clémentine Valadon, a young painter who later assumed the name Suzanne Valadon, and was to be the mother of Maurice Utrillo.

The present work was once in the collection of Sarah Jane Sanford Panza, the American heiress and wife of Mario Panza, an Italian diplomat working during the 1930s.