.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Monet and Renoir continued to paint landscapes side-by-side en plein air throughout the latter half of the 1860s and into the early half of the 1870s; both artists pursuing and perfecting the new impressionist aesthetic. However, in his portraiture, Renoir remained fundamentally true to the Salon conventions of the nineteenth century. As Colin Bailey writes:
In the 1860s and 1870s at least, the formats he preferred were conventional, old fashioned even; indeed, it can be argued that Renoir emulated both Salon portraiture and commercial photography rather than following the researches of his fellow 'actualistes' and Impressionists...his sitters are placed firmly in the centre of the the composition, full-square or at a slight angle to the spectator, and are portrayed with a generally serious though not forbidding expression. (C.B. Bailey quoted in Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age, exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1997, p. 20)
While the pose and presentation of the sitter in Femme au corsage de chantilly may be appropriated from traditional portraiture, the handling of the paint and brushstroke betray Renoir's new understanding of modern painting. Bailey has further commented, "...what distinguishes them [portraits] from those of Renoir's Salon contemporaries is the extraordinary light with which they are imbued, 'the natural light of the day penetrating and influencing all things,' which transforms and radicalizes Renoir's figures set in interiors and in his genre painting" (ibid, p. 21).
In the 1860s and 1870s at least, the formats he preferred were conventional, old fashioned even; indeed, it can be argued that Renoir emulated both Salon portraiture and commercial photography rather than following the researches of his fellow 'actualistes' and Impressionists...his sitters are placed firmly in the centre of the the composition, full-square or at a slight angle to the spectator, and are portrayed with a generally serious though not forbidding expression. (C.B. Bailey quoted in Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age, exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1997, p. 20)
While the pose and presentation of the sitter in Femme au corsage de chantilly may be appropriated from traditional portraiture, the handling of the paint and brushstroke betray Renoir's new understanding of modern painting. Bailey has further commented, "...what distinguishes them [portraits] from those of Renoir's Salon contemporaries is the extraordinary light with which they are imbued, 'the natural light of the day penetrating and influencing all things,' which transforms and radicalizes Renoir's figures set in interiors and in his genre painting" (ibid, p. 21).