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Lot Essay
With its luminous palette and vivid sense of texture, Madeleine au corsage blanc et bouquet de fleurs exemplifies Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s sumptuous late style. Focusing on a young, voluptuous woman seated in an elegant interior, the painting is a masterful study of color, light and facture, concerns that occupied Renoir consistently through this period of his career. Formerly in the collection of Paul Guillaume, one of the most influential dealers in Paris during the early twentieth century, Madeleine au corsage blanc et bouquet de fleurs demonstrates the enduring significance of Renoir’s creative vision for new generations of collectors and artists.
As the title suggests, the sitter for the painting is Madeleine Bruno, one of Renoir's principal models during this period, who sat for several dozen canvases between 1913 and 1919. Recognizable by her round face, full rosy cheeks, and dark brown hair, Madeleine posed for the last two masterworks of the artist’s career, along with the red-haired Dédée Heuschling: Les grandes baigneuses (Dauberville, no. 4303; 1918-1919; Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and Le Concert (1918-1919; The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto), both testaments to Renoir’s lifelong pursuit of sensual beauty in his art.
Wearing a loose-fitting white chemise and peignoir with voluminous sleeves, Madeleine’s upper body dominates the pictorial space, its monumental proportions drawing the viewer into an encounter both intimate and grand. Although Madeleine’s natural physique was slight, Renoir consistently depicted her with the voluptuous curves and palpable physicality that reflected his ideal of feminine beauty. As art historian Barbara Ehrlich White has written, ‘The quintessence of beauty for Renoir was still sensuousness, best expressed through plump women who are the link between the cycle of life and artistic creativity’ (Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters, New York, 1984, p. 280).
'I paint flowers with the color of nudes, and I paint women in the same pink tones as the flowers.' — Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Renoir first explored the motif of a resplendent, full-figured woman wearing a rose in her hair in numerous paintings of Gabrielle Renard, Madeleine’s predecessor and one of the artist’s most important models from 1895 until 1913. The blossom appears in the eponymous Gabrielle à la rose of 1899, the first painting for which Gabrielle is known to have posed bare-breasted (Dauberville, no. 2468; Private collection). Early in the new century, Gabrielle modeled for two monumental horizontal canvases of a reclining nude, in which a blush-colored rose again stands out against her dark, glossy hair (Dauberville, nos. 3502 and 3510; Christie's, New York, 4 May 2010, lot 34, and Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris). Renoir elevated the rose to a central narrative role in a sequence of canvases from 1907-1911 that show Gabrielle at her toilette, in the act of pinning the flower into her hair.
In Madeleine au corsage blanc et bouquet de fleurs, Renoir has retained many elements from the paintings of Gabrielle at her toilette. The rose in Madeleine’s coiffure appears to have been plucked from the lavish bouquet to her left, while the semi-translucent chemise recalls earlier portrayals of Gabrielle in similar dress. Whereas Gabrielle appears in a fleeting, momentary pose, caught in the act of fixing her hair, however, Madeleine appears utterly tranquil and timeless, her hands folded and her expression serene, as if she is waiting for something to occur. Using a palette of principally warm, heightened tones that includes pink, peach, red, lilac and gold, with contrasting touches of blue and green in the surrounding space, Renoir accentuates the sensual atmosphere of the scene. Across the canvas, flickering brushstrokes of varying density are deployed to generate an intriguing play of texture from one element to the next, variously suggesting the velvety finish of the flower’s petals, the diaphanous material of her chemise, and the softness of Madeleine’s skin.
Art historian John House has noted in his discussion of works from this period of Renoir’s career: ‘the rhymes and echoes between the objects create a series of metaphorical associations…Painting becomes a vehicle for suggesting the correspondence of the senses, and in this fantasy of an old man the elements all combine to express youth, growth, beauty, and color – the vision of an earthly paradise’ (Renoir, exh. cat., The Hayward Gallery, London, 1985, p. 290).
Renoir created all his portraits of Madeleine at Les Collettes, a large property located in the hills near Cagnes, in the south of France, where he lived from 1908 until his passing in 1919. Situated by an old olive grove and surrounded by wild, overgrown rose bushes, this romantic location proved essential to his late works. As the artist’s son Jean has explained, it provided ‘vital elements which helped Renoir to interpret on his canvas the tremendous cry of love he uttered at the end of his life’ (Renoir, My Father, New York, 1958, p. 426). Much like the garden at Giverny was for Claude Monet (vividly depicted in lot 6 in the sale, La maison à travers les roses), Les Collettes was the physical embodiment of the ideal pictorial vision of Renoir’s late years. ‘But it was quite different in two crucial ways,’ House has explained. ‘Monet built his anew, to his own aesthetic specifications, while Renoir’s was old, preserved as an idealized vision of past society; and Monet’s was an elaborately cultivated garden, conceived as an object of solitary contemplation, whereas Renoir’s view of nature necessarily implied a human presence, which the olives and old farm evoked so richly. This harmonious interrelationship between nature and man became the vision of the ‘earthly paradise’ which he sought in his art in his last years’ (exh. cat., op. cit., 1985, pp. 287‑288).
The present work – along with Blonde à la rose, currently housed in Musée de l’Orangerie – was formerly in the collection of Paul Guillaume. Guillaume was not only one of the most influential art dealers and collectors in Paris during the early twentieth century, but also a consequential figure who recognized and advocated for the significance of Renoir’s late oeuvre. Rising from humble beginnings, Guillaume distinguished himself through his keen eye for modernism and his willingness to champion artists whose reputations were still being contested. In Madeleine au corsage blanc et bouquet de fleurs, Renoir transcends mere portraiture to create an enchanting image that intertwines figure, flower, and environment into a single, vibrant vision of beauty and joy.
As the title suggests, the sitter for the painting is Madeleine Bruno, one of Renoir's principal models during this period, who sat for several dozen canvases between 1913 and 1919. Recognizable by her round face, full rosy cheeks, and dark brown hair, Madeleine posed for the last two masterworks of the artist’s career, along with the red-haired Dédée Heuschling: Les grandes baigneuses (Dauberville, no. 4303; 1918-1919; Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and Le Concert (1918-1919; The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto), both testaments to Renoir’s lifelong pursuit of sensual beauty in his art.
Wearing a loose-fitting white chemise and peignoir with voluminous sleeves, Madeleine’s upper body dominates the pictorial space, its monumental proportions drawing the viewer into an encounter both intimate and grand. Although Madeleine’s natural physique was slight, Renoir consistently depicted her with the voluptuous curves and palpable physicality that reflected his ideal of feminine beauty. As art historian Barbara Ehrlich White has written, ‘The quintessence of beauty for Renoir was still sensuousness, best expressed through plump women who are the link between the cycle of life and artistic creativity’ (Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters, New York, 1984, p. 280).
'I paint flowers with the color of nudes, and I paint women in the same pink tones as the flowers.' — Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Renoir first explored the motif of a resplendent, full-figured woman wearing a rose in her hair in numerous paintings of Gabrielle Renard, Madeleine’s predecessor and one of the artist’s most important models from 1895 until 1913. The blossom appears in the eponymous Gabrielle à la rose of 1899, the first painting for which Gabrielle is known to have posed bare-breasted (Dauberville, no. 2468; Private collection). Early in the new century, Gabrielle modeled for two monumental horizontal canvases of a reclining nude, in which a blush-colored rose again stands out against her dark, glossy hair (Dauberville, nos. 3502 and 3510; Christie's, New York, 4 May 2010, lot 34, and Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris). Renoir elevated the rose to a central narrative role in a sequence of canvases from 1907-1911 that show Gabrielle at her toilette, in the act of pinning the flower into her hair.
In Madeleine au corsage blanc et bouquet de fleurs, Renoir has retained many elements from the paintings of Gabrielle at her toilette. The rose in Madeleine’s coiffure appears to have been plucked from the lavish bouquet to her left, while the semi-translucent chemise recalls earlier portrayals of Gabrielle in similar dress. Whereas Gabrielle appears in a fleeting, momentary pose, caught in the act of fixing her hair, however, Madeleine appears utterly tranquil and timeless, her hands folded and her expression serene, as if she is waiting for something to occur. Using a palette of principally warm, heightened tones that includes pink, peach, red, lilac and gold, with contrasting touches of blue and green in the surrounding space, Renoir accentuates the sensual atmosphere of the scene. Across the canvas, flickering brushstrokes of varying density are deployed to generate an intriguing play of texture from one element to the next, variously suggesting the velvety finish of the flower’s petals, the diaphanous material of her chemise, and the softness of Madeleine’s skin.
Art historian John House has noted in his discussion of works from this period of Renoir’s career: ‘the rhymes and echoes between the objects create a series of metaphorical associations…Painting becomes a vehicle for suggesting the correspondence of the senses, and in this fantasy of an old man the elements all combine to express youth, growth, beauty, and color – the vision of an earthly paradise’ (Renoir, exh. cat., The Hayward Gallery, London, 1985, p. 290).
Renoir created all his portraits of Madeleine at Les Collettes, a large property located in the hills near Cagnes, in the south of France, where he lived from 1908 until his passing in 1919. Situated by an old olive grove and surrounded by wild, overgrown rose bushes, this romantic location proved essential to his late works. As the artist’s son Jean has explained, it provided ‘vital elements which helped Renoir to interpret on his canvas the tremendous cry of love he uttered at the end of his life’ (Renoir, My Father, New York, 1958, p. 426). Much like the garden at Giverny was for Claude Monet (vividly depicted in lot 6 in the sale, La maison à travers les roses), Les Collettes was the physical embodiment of the ideal pictorial vision of Renoir’s late years. ‘But it was quite different in two crucial ways,’ House has explained. ‘Monet built his anew, to his own aesthetic specifications, while Renoir’s was old, preserved as an idealized vision of past society; and Monet’s was an elaborately cultivated garden, conceived as an object of solitary contemplation, whereas Renoir’s view of nature necessarily implied a human presence, which the olives and old farm evoked so richly. This harmonious interrelationship between nature and man became the vision of the ‘earthly paradise’ which he sought in his art in his last years’ (exh. cat., op. cit., 1985, pp. 287‑288).
The present work – along with Blonde à la rose, currently housed in Musée de l’Orangerie – was formerly in the collection of Paul Guillaume. Guillaume was not only one of the most influential art dealers and collectors in Paris during the early twentieth century, but also a consequential figure who recognized and advocated for the significance of Renoir’s late oeuvre. Rising from humble beginnings, Guillaume distinguished himself through his keen eye for modernism and his willingness to champion artists whose reputations were still being contested. In Madeleine au corsage blanc et bouquet de fleurs, Renoir transcends mere portraiture to create an enchanting image that intertwines figure, flower, and environment into a single, vibrant vision of beauty and joy.