Lot 3209 - A195 Impressionist & Modern Art - Friday, 04. December 2020, 04.00 PM
PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR
(Limoges 1841–1919 Cagnes-sur-Mer)
L'allée d'arbres. Circa 1900.
Oil on canvas.
Monogrammed lower right: AR.
33.5 × 26.5 cm.
We would like to thank the Wildenstein-Plattner Institute for confirming the authenticity of the work, October 2020.
Provenance:
- Ambroise Vollard, Paris.
- Collection Madame Lepine.
- Auction Hôtel George V, Paris, 17 November 1992, lot 136.
- Swiss private collection, acquired at the above auction.
Literature:
- Guy-Patrice and Michel Dauberville: Renoir. Catalogue Raisonné des Tableaux, Pastels, Dessins et Aquarelles, Paris 2010, vol. III, p. 74, no. 1803 (with ill.).
- Ambroise Vollard: Tableaux, pastels et dessins de Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paris 1918, vol. II, p. 166.
In 1923 the French painter Albert André declared: "I love paintings that make me want to walk in them when they depict a landscape [...]" (Albert André 1923, p. 34). The view of the present work by Renoir perfectly illustrates André’s statement. Renoir invites us to take a fairytale autumnal walk through this landscape depiction. Showing a tree-lined road, it captures the atmosphere of an autumn afternoon. The leaves of the trees are bathed in red and yellow tones that are echoed in the fallen leaves on the forest floor. Individual branches rise into the air and create a harmonious transition to the turquoise-blue of the sky. Through his use of warm, rich colours, Renoir's landscape paintings convey a sense of positivity. Although the artist departed from classical Impressionism from the 1880s onwards, "L'allée d'arbres" shows clear features of the movement’s fleeting, spontaneous painting style. Its loose brushwork and play of colour and light both underscore this effect. Here, Renoir has successfully captured nature as an atmospheric unit in the appropriate colours of the season.
Dated circa 1900 the present painting stems from a time when Renoir preferred to stay in the south of France due to his rheumatoid arthritis. It is part of a series of landscapes that were inspired by the vegetation of the French south in the years around the turn of the century. It can therefore be assumed that Renoir painted the present landscape in the vicinity of the towns of Cagnes, Grasse or Aix-les-Bains, where he was staying in 1899.
Provenance:
- Ambroise Vollard, Paris.
- Collection Madame Lepine.
- Auction Hôtel George V, Paris, 17 November 1992, lot 136.
- Swiss private collection, acquired at the above auction.
Literature:
- Guy-Patrice and Michel Dauberville: Renoir. Catalogue Raisonné des Tableaux, Pastels, Dessins et Aquarelles, Paris 2010, vol. III, p. 74, no. 1803 (with ill.).
- Ambroise Vollard: Tableaux, pastels et dessins de Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paris 1918, vol. II, p. 166.
In 1923 the French painter Albert André declared: "I love paintings that make me want to walk in them when they depict a landscape [...]" (Albert André 1923, p. 34). The view of the present work by Renoir perfectly illustrates André’s statement. Renoir invites us to take a fairytale autumnal walk through this landscape depiction. Showing a tree-lined road, it captures the atmosphere of an autumn afternoon. The leaves of the trees are bathed in red and yellow tones that are echoed in the fallen leaves on the forest floor. Individual branches rise into the air and create a harmonious transition to the turquoise-blue of the sky. Through his use of warm, rich colours, Renoir's landscape paintings convey a sense of positivity. Although the artist departed from classical Impressionism from the 1880s onwards, "L'allée d'arbres" shows clear features of the movement’s fleeting, spontaneous painting style. Its loose brushwork and play of colour and light both underscore this effect. Here, Renoir has successfully captured nature as an atmospheric unit in the appropriate colours of the season.
Dated circa 1900 the present painting stems from a time when Renoir preferred to stay in the south of France due to his rheumatoid arthritis. It is part of a series of landscapes that were inspired by the vegetation of the French south in the years around the turn of the century. It can therefore be assumed that Renoir painted the present landscape in the vicinity of the towns of Cagnes, Grasse or Aix-les-Bains, where he was staying in 1899.
CHF 160 000 / 240 000 | (€ 164 950 / 247 420)
Sold for CHF 232 100 (including buyer’s premium)
All information is subject to change.