Lot Essay
François Daulte will include this watercolor in volume VI (Pastels, acquarelles et dessins) of his Renoir catalogue raisonné.
Property from the Estate of ERNA STIEBEL
In their Paris residence on the Avenue Georges V and on the great liners that provided their leisurely commute to New York City, Erna and Hans Stiebel were part of the mainstream of the reviving art market after World War II. Hans represented the third generation in the respected Frankfurt art-dealing family whose gallery, Rosenberg & Stiebel, still flourishes today in New York City. Extending the family business abroad he settled in Paris in 1924 and was interned there as an enemy alien in 1940. After his release was obtained by his younger brother, Eric, who had come to the United States in 1939, he spent the war years in New York where he married the former Erna Kaufmann.
Returning to Paris in 1950 he worked in close cooperation with his brother Eric who was joined by their cousin Saemmy Rosenberg in the New York gallery. Together they shepherded works of art from the great private collections of Europe to the museums of the United States, including the Metropolitan in New York, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Toledo and Cleveland (over ninety acquisitions were made from Rosenberg & Stiebel by the Cleveland Museum alone).
Until his death in 1964 Hans Stiebel served as a trusted advisor to the post-war generation of American collectors, who purchased from Rosenberg & Stiebel in New York, toured the Paris market with Hans as their guide, and relied on him as their agent in the auction rooms. Luminaries included J. Paul Getty, Charles and Jayne Wrightsman and Henry Ford II. Although quiet charm and consummate discretion were his hallmark, Hans Stiebel found himself pictured in the New York Times and Newsweek and written up in the international press when he entered the successful bid of an unprecedented $200,000 for the Renoir painting La Serre at the Lurcy sale in 1957. The painting was destined for Mr. and Mrs. Ford, and was later resold at Christie's New York on May 13, 1980 for $1.2 million.
Hans Stiebel selected works of art for his homes in New York, Paris, and later Lausanne, that discreetly echoed his professional activities. The French furniture, Continental ceramics, German silver, jewelry, and Impressionist and Modern paintings and drawings in his widow's estate speak of an unerring taste as they define the fabric of cultured life in Europe in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Property from the Estate of
ERNA STIEBEL
Property from the Estate of ERNA STIEBEL
Details
Property from the Estate of ERNA STIEBEL
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919)
Etudes de paysage
signed with initial bottom right 'R.'--watercolor on paper laid down on board
18¾ x 12¼in. (47.6 x 31.1cm.)
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919)
Etudes de paysage
signed with initial bottom right 'R.'--watercolor on paper laid down on board
18¾ x 12¼in. (47.6 x 31.1cm.)
Literature
A. Vollard, Tableaux, pastels et dessins de Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paris, 1918, vol. II, p. 14 (illustrated)