Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre Renoir Drawing1888

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Oil painting portrait of a young child in a blue garment, head bowed over paper, holding a pencil and drawing, rendered in soft, blended brushwork

Artist or Maker: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
France, Limoges, 1841-1919
Title: Pierre Renoir Drawing
Culture: French
Date Made: 1888
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 10 1/4 × 13 5/8 in. (26.04 × 34.61 cm) Framed: 20 3/8 × 23 3/8 × 3 3/8 in. (51.75 × 59.37 × 8.57 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of A. Jerrold Perenchio
Accession Number: M.2025.64.14
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted children throughout his long career. Not only did he portray the sons and daughters of the bourgeoisie who commissioned their own society portraits (M.68.46.1), he turned often to his own family for inspiration. At the time Renoir executed this painting in 1888, he was well on his way to financial and critical success. He had joined the Impressionists and participated in their first three exhibitions (1874, 1876, and 1877), but by the late 1870s he had returned to a less investigative approach that was likely drawn from his success as a fashionable portraitist. A trip to Italy in 1881 reaffirmed his engagement with the old masters, especially Raphael, and proved transformative in redefining his method of lighting: rather than illuminating a scene, he recognized how light could emanate from within it. Such is the case in this intimate image of his three-year-old son Pierre drawing, where light seems to radiate from the boy himself onto the object of his intense focus.

Renoir aligned himself with a tradition of child portraiture stretching back to eighteenth-century France. His paintings of children absorbed in private tasks reflect the thoughtful quiet of Chardin’s works (M.79.251) and, slightly later, those of Jean-Baptiste Greuze. For both, youth projected innocence and purity, qualities that Renoir saw gradually disappearing in the wake of the social and political turmoil of modern Parisian life. It was, in part, his refusal to address these challenges in favor of depicting only the palatable aspects of bourgeois life that affected his reputation in the history of modern painting. Even Degas complained about it, wishing for more from his friend and exclaiming, “Let him do no more portraits, let him remain a landscape painter!”

2024
Provenance: The artist, to 9 June 1891; [Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, sold before 1922 to];(1) Paul Durand-Ruel (1831–1922), Paris. [Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York, sold 24 February 1932 to]; Stephen C. Clark (1882–1960), New York, sold 21 November 1945 to;(2) [Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York and Rosenberg, New York]. [Galerie Durand-Ruel, New York sold 27 February 1948 to]; A. B. Knop City Bank Farmers (Astor), New York. Lord and Lady Astor, New York, by 1964;(3) Mr. And Mrs. James Astor, London. [Coe Kerr Gallery Inc., New York, sold 26 March 1982 to]; A. J. Perenchio (1930–2017), Los Angeles, gifted 2025 to; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Footnotes
(1) According to Durand-Ruel the painting was purchased by the gallery from the artist on 9 June 1891 (stock no. 1004). The picture was later part of Paul Durand-Ruel’s private collection, but the gallery is unable to identify exactly when, although certainly before his death in 1922. The gallery sold it to Clark, and it was purchased back by the New York gallery, in half shares with Rosenberg (Durand-Ruel, New York, stock no. 5525). In their stockbook, the final sale by Durand-Ruel was to “A.B. Knop City Bank Farmers (Astor)” on 27 February 1948 (document prepared by Flavie and Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel for Leah Lehmbeck, 8 December 2015). Lord Astor’s name and dates of ownership are given by François Daulte in his catalogue raisonné.
(2) Labels on the reverse of the painting identify Clark as owner of the painting during this period. Known for his philanthropy and art collecting, Stephen C. Clark was one of the heirs to the Singer Sewing Machine Company fortune. In addition to establishing the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, he was actively involved in New York’s art museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, where he was a trustee. His brother, also an art collector, founded the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.
(3) This is possibly John Jacob Astor (1886–1971), 1st Baron Astor of Hever, New York and London. According to François Daulte this was in the collection of Lord and Lady Astor, London, by 1964.
Selected Bibliography: Lehmbeck, Leah, ed. Impressionist and Modern Art: The A. Jerrold Perenchio Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2016.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre Renoir Drawing1888

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Artist or Maker: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
France, Limoges, 1841-1919
Title: Pierre Renoir Drawing
Culture: French
Date Made: 1888
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 10 1/4 × 13 5/8 in. (26.04 × 34.61 cm) Framed: 20 3/8 × 23 3/8 × 3 3/8 in. (51.75 × 59.37 × 8.57 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of A. Jerrold Perenchio
Accession Number: M.2025.64.14
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted children throughout his long career. Not only did he portray the sons and daughters of the bourgeoisie who commissioned their own society portraits (M.68.46.1), he turned often to his own family for inspiration. At the time Renoir executed this painting in 1888, he was well on his way to financial and critical success. He had joined the Impressionists and participated in their first three exhibitions (1874, 1876, and 1877), but by the late 1870s he had returned to a less investigative approach that was likely drawn from his success as a fashionable portraitist. A trip to Italy in 1881 reaffirmed his engagement with the old masters, especially Raphael, and proved transformative in redefining his method of lighting: rather than illuminating a scene, he recognized how light could emanate from within it. Such is the case in this intimate image of his three-year-old son Pierre drawing, where light seems to radiate from the boy himself onto the object of his intense focus.

Renoir aligned himself with a tradition of child portraiture stretching back to eighteenth-century France. His paintings of children absorbed in private tasks reflect the thoughtful quiet of Chardin’s works (M.79.251) and, slightly later, those of Jean-Baptiste Greuze. For both, youth projected innocence and purity, qualities that Renoir saw gradually disappearing in the wake of the social and political turmoil of modern Parisian life. It was, in part, his refusal to address these challenges in favor of depicting only the palatable aspects of bourgeois life that affected his reputation in the history of modern painting. Even Degas complained about it, wishing for more from his friend and exclaiming, “Let him do no more portraits, let him remain a landscape painter!”

2024
Provenance: The artist, to 9 June 1891; [Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, sold before 1922 to];(1) Paul Durand-Ruel (1831–1922), Paris. [Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York, sold 24 February 1932 to]; Stephen C. Clark (1882–1960), New York, sold 21 November 1945 to;(2) [Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York and Rosenberg, New York]. [Galerie Durand-Ruel, New York sold 27 February 1948 to]; A. B. Knop City Bank Farmers (Astor), New York. Lord and Lady Astor, New York, by 1964;(3) Mr. And Mrs. James Astor, London. [Coe Kerr Gallery Inc., New York, sold 26 March 1982 to]; A. J. Perenchio (1930–2017), Los Angeles, gifted 2025 to; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Footnotes
(1) According to Durand-Ruel the painting was purchased by the gallery from the artist on 9 June 1891 (stock no. 1004). The picture was later part of Paul Durand-Ruel’s private collection, but the gallery is unable to identify exactly when, although certainly before his death in 1922. The gallery sold it to Clark, and it was purchased back by the New York gallery, in half shares with Rosenberg (Durand-Ruel, New York, stock no. 5525). In their stockbook, the final sale by Durand-Ruel was to “A.B. Knop City Bank Farmers (Astor)” on 27 February 1948 (document prepared by Flavie and Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel for Leah Lehmbeck, 8 December 2015). Lord Astor’s name and dates of ownership are given by François Daulte in his catalogue raisonné.
(2) Labels on the reverse of the painting identify Clark as owner of the painting during this period. Known for his philanthropy and art collecting, Stephen C. Clark was one of the heirs to the Singer Sewing Machine Company fortune. In addition to establishing the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, he was actively involved in New York’s art museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, where he was a trustee. His brother, also an art collector, founded the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.
(3) This is possibly John Jacob Astor (1886–1971), 1st Baron Astor of Hever, New York and London. According to François Daulte this was in the collection of Lord and Lady Astor, London, by 1964.
Selected Bibliography: Lehmbeck, Leah, ed. Impressionist and Modern Art: The A. Jerrold Perenchio Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2016.