PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919)
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919)
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919)
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PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919)
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PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF SELIM & MARY ZILKHA
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919)

Bougival, les Grand Boulevards

Details
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919)
Bougival, les Grand Boulevards
signed with initial 'R.' (lower left)
pastel and charcoal on paper laid down on canvas
24 x 18 ¼ in. (61 x 46.3 cm.)
Drawn in 1880
Provenance
Ambroise Vollard, Paris (acquired from the artist, January 1909).
O'Hana Gallery, London.
Clarica Davidson, London (acquired from the above, May 1956).
O'Hana Gallery, London.
Private collection, New York (acquired from the above, October 1956).
O'Hana Gallery, London.
Acquired from the above by the present owner, April 1957.
Exhibited
London, O'Hana Gallery, Exhibition of French Masters of The XIX and XX Centuries, June-August 1956, no. 24 (illustrated in color, pl. 6; titled Sur les boulevards and with incorrect support).
Further details
This work will be included in the forthcoming Pierre-Auguste Renoir's digital catalogue raisonné, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.

This work will be included in the second supplement to the Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles de Renoir being prepared by Guy-Patrice and Floriane Dauberville.

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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.

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