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Lot Essay
This painting will be included in the forthcoming Renoir catalogue raisonné from François Daulte being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute.
By the 1890s Pierre-Auguste Renoir's commercial success finally afforded him the opportunity to enjoy the comfortable bourgeois life that had hitherto eluded him. The simple pleasure Renoir took in the daily activities shared with his family is expressed in the numerous paintings during this period. In 1894 his second son Jean was born and Aline's cousin Gabrielle Renard joined the household to help with the new baby. Judging from the age of Jean as he appears in La famille, the painting can be dated circa 1896, when Renoir was living with his family at the Château des Brouillards in Montmartre. The picture portrays Jean seated on Gabrielle's lap, reaching towards a crouching woman, as Aline stands attentively behind him. La famille relates in subject and in scale to a second family group, La famille d'Artiste (Barnes Collection, Merion, Pennyslvania) that was exhibited at Durand-Ruel in June 1896. It shows Aline, Gabrille and Jean with Pierre and the daughter of the journalist Paul Alexis who was their neighbor.
Throughout the last decades of his life Renoir became increasingly interested in achieving a sense of naturalism in his painting. In the very modern treatment of La famille, which is devoid of distracting background detail, Renoir aims to achieve a balance of form and negative space so as to capture the impression of the moment. The palette of the present painting, with its tones of red, blue, yellow and green that are punctuated with touches of luminous white, are typical of his work from this period. Similarly, Renoir incorporates one of his favorite devices, a fashionable hat, which adorns Aline. The rapid sketch-like quality of the handling of the paint gives La famille a sense of informal immediacy. However, the hierarchical arrangement of the figures suggests that Renoir may have been inspired by classical models when structuring the composition, such as Peter Paul Ruben's Hélène Fourmet and her children which he had copied in the Louvre.
By the 1890s Pierre-Auguste Renoir's commercial success finally afforded him the opportunity to enjoy the comfortable bourgeois life that had hitherto eluded him. The simple pleasure Renoir took in the daily activities shared with his family is expressed in the numerous paintings during this period. In 1894 his second son Jean was born and Aline's cousin Gabrielle Renard joined the household to help with the new baby. Judging from the age of Jean as he appears in La famille, the painting can be dated circa 1896, when Renoir was living with his family at the Château des Brouillards in Montmartre. The picture portrays Jean seated on Gabrielle's lap, reaching towards a crouching woman, as Aline stands attentively behind him. La famille relates in subject and in scale to a second family group, La famille d'Artiste (Barnes Collection, Merion, Pennyslvania) that was exhibited at Durand-Ruel in June 1896. It shows Aline, Gabrille and Jean with Pierre and the daughter of the journalist Paul Alexis who was their neighbor.
Throughout the last decades of his life Renoir became increasingly interested in achieving a sense of naturalism in his painting. In the very modern treatment of La famille, which is devoid of distracting background detail, Renoir aims to achieve a balance of form and negative space so as to capture the impression of the moment. The palette of the present painting, with its tones of red, blue, yellow and green that are punctuated with touches of luminous white, are typical of his work from this period. Similarly, Renoir incorporates one of his favorite devices, a fashionable hat, which adorns Aline. The rapid sketch-like quality of the handling of the paint gives La famille a sense of informal immediacy. However, the hierarchical arrangement of the figures suggests that Renoir may have been inspired by classical models when structuring the composition, such as Peter Paul Ruben's Hélène Fourmet and her children which he had copied in the Louvre.