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PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF FERNAND AND BEATRICE LEVAL IMAGE BARCODE: 23671027 Beatrice Leval in her study Fernand Leval was a young Swiss executive working in Paris for the international grain trading firm Louis Dreyfus & Cie. when he was sent to New York around 1912. After the entry of the United States into the Second World War, the firm was reorganized as Leval & Co., which it remained until 1956. In 1933, he married his wife of thirty years, native New Yorker Beatrice Reiter. Fernand and Beatrice Leval were a charming and well-known international couple who frequently traveled to Europe to visit family, friends and galleries throughout Paris. They were passionate buyers of fine art, with an intuitive and informed taste, and a decisive approach. Their first early Impressionist acquisition was Eugène Boudin's L'Estuaire á marée basse, on which they put a down-payment at Galerie Charpentier in 1939. Before they could return to pay the balance, the German Army occupied Paris. After the war in 1945, when the Levals joined one of the first groups of American civilians to enter liberated France to bring aid and reunite with their loved ones, they returned to the gallery and completed their purchase. At the same time, they also acquired Renoir's Paysage de Provence (see lot 201). The following year they returned to Galerie Charpentier to acquire what became their favorite painting, Vuillard's La Table, la fin du déjeuner chez Madame Vuillard, (see lot 10, in Christie's, New York, 4 May 2005 Evening Sale) which fueled an abiding passion for Impressionist and Modern Art. Christie's is honored to offer the following (lots 201-209) from the Collection of Fernand and Beatrice Leval, in the 4 May Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale (lots 8-14) and the 5 May Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper Sale (lot 103).

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

Paysage de Provence

Details

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Paysage de Provence
signed 'Renoir' (lower left)
oil on canvas
11 7/8 x 15¼ in. (30.3 x 38.7 cm.)

Provenance

Galerie Charpentier, Paris.
Acquired from the above by the late owners, 1945.

Literature

A. Vollard, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, tableaux, pastels et dessins, Paris, 1918, vol. II, p. 32, no. 126 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Paysages de France, 1945, no. 84bis (illustrated, p. 29).

Special notice

On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial interest in lots consigned for sale. This interest may include guaranteeing a minimum price to the consignor of property or making an advance to the consignor which is secured solely by consigned property. Such property is offered subject to a reserve. This is such a lot.

Sale room notice

The Wildenstein Institute will include this painting in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Pierre-Auguste Renoir established from the archives of François Daulte, Durand-Ruel, Venturi, Vollard, and Wildenstein.
We are grateful to Guy-Patrice and Michel Dauberville for confirming that this picture is included in their Bernheim-Jeune Archives as an authentic work.

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