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Lot Essay
Throughout the late 1870s and early 1880s, the Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir produced several images of social life in the Parisian suburb of Bougival. This bucolic town situated along the Seine River was known as a hub of leisure and sport for urban pleasure-seekers, but also drew the attention of a number of modern artists, Renoir among them. His depictions of this destination—including the present pastel, Bougival, les Grand Boulevards—have been described by one art historian as "a perfect expression of modern life, of middle class—and artistic—liberty, hedonistic enjoyment, essential escape from city work" (R.L. Herbert, Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society, New Haven, 1988, p. 253).
The protagonists of Bougival, les Grand Boulevards are a group of fashionable young Parisians strolling along one of the town's winding streets, dotted with charming villas, shops and cafés. In the foreground, a trio of women, dressed in smart, simple day dresses with dainty, matching bonnets, are accompanied (or perhaps flirtatiously approached) by a tall man in a dapper suit and hat. The man leans down, as if to whisper in the flower-festooned ear of the pretty strawberry-blonde woman wearing a tangerine dress coat.
Renoir captured this charming social encounter with bold and loose strokes of pastel. According to curator Astrid Reuter, pastels form a relatively small portion of Renoir's overall body of work; yet he began to use this bright-colored medium more frequently for genre scenes in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Renoir exhibited pastels at both the Salon and the Impressionist exhibitions during that period.
Bougival, les Grand Boulevards was acquired directly from the artist in 1909 by the legendary Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard. In April 1957, this pastel was acquired by the American investor, philanthropist and important collector Selim Zilkha. In addition to Impressionist works on paper, Selim and his wife Mary Zilkha acquired a large number of princely treasures from the Early Modern period, including a 17th-century German silver nautilus shell cup and 18th-century Japanese lacquer. That portion of their collection will be sold at Christie's, New York in February 2025.
The protagonists of Bougival, les Grand Boulevards are a group of fashionable young Parisians strolling along one of the town's winding streets, dotted with charming villas, shops and cafés. In the foreground, a trio of women, dressed in smart, simple day dresses with dainty, matching bonnets, are accompanied (or perhaps flirtatiously approached) by a tall man in a dapper suit and hat. The man leans down, as if to whisper in the flower-festooned ear of the pretty strawberry-blonde woman wearing a tangerine dress coat.
Renoir captured this charming social encounter with bold and loose strokes of pastel. According to curator Astrid Reuter, pastels form a relatively small portion of Renoir's overall body of work; yet he began to use this bright-colored medium more frequently for genre scenes in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Renoir exhibited pastels at both the Salon and the Impressionist exhibitions during that period.
Bougival, les Grand Boulevards was acquired directly from the artist in 1909 by the legendary Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard. In April 1957, this pastel was acquired by the American investor, philanthropist and important collector Selim Zilkha. In addition to Impressionist works on paper, Selim and his wife Mary Zilkha acquired a large number of princely treasures from the Early Modern period, including a 17th-century German silver nautilus shell cup and 18th-century Japanese lacquer. That portion of their collection will be sold at Christie's, New York in February 2025.