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Lot Essay
Renoir spent over a month in Guernsey between September and October 1883, staying in lodgings at no. 4 George Road, St. Peter Port. He painted approximately 15 pictures on the island, including his great masterpieces Enfants au bord de la mer Guernsey, in the Barnes Foundation, Pennsylvania, or Marine Guernsey, in the Muse d'Orsay, Paris. All of the Guernsey canvases represent views of the bay and the beach of Moulin Huet, at the east end of the island's rocky south coast and within walking distance from his lodgings. This particular view has always been singled out amongst the island's finest scenic attractions.
Enfants sur la plage Guernsey, and its sister-piece, Femme et enfants sur la plage Guernsey (fig. 1, Private Collection, Switzerland) are extremely similar in subject, depicting young children bathing among the rocks. Renoir recorded how inspired he was by the beautiful light and colours of Guernsey which he claimed were more essential to these paintings than the subjects themselves. It is for this reason that his best Guernsey pictures are painted with these long lush brushstrokes, using a panapoly of soft colour tones.
By all accounts Renoir had a memorable trip to Guernsey. In a letter written from Guernsey in September 1883 to his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, Renoir wrote enthusiastically: "I've found myself a charming beach here which is quite unlike our Normandy beaches [..]. They bathe here among the rocks, which serve as cabins since there is nothing else. This mixture of men and women clustered on the rocks is charming. It feels more like being in a Watteau landscape than in the real world. So I have a source of motifs that are real, graceful and which may be of use to me. The bathing costumes are ravishing; and, as in Athens, the women are quite unabashed about the proximity of men on the neighbouring rocks. There's nothing more diverting, moving among the rocks, than to surprise young girls changing to swim and who - despite being English - are not at all put out. I hope to give you an idea of these charming landscapes, despite the slightness of what I shall be able to bring back." (quoted in: N. Wadley (ed.), Renoir A Retrospective, New York, 1987).
Enfants sur la plage Guernsey, and its sister-piece, Femme et enfants sur la plage Guernsey (fig. 1, Private Collection, Switzerland) are extremely similar in subject, depicting young children bathing among the rocks. Renoir recorded how inspired he was by the beautiful light and colours of Guernsey which he claimed were more essential to these paintings than the subjects themselves. It is for this reason that his best Guernsey pictures are painted with these long lush brushstrokes, using a panapoly of soft colour tones.
By all accounts Renoir had a memorable trip to Guernsey. In a letter written from Guernsey in September 1883 to his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, Renoir wrote enthusiastically: "I've found myself a charming beach here which is quite unlike our Normandy beaches [..]. They bathe here among the rocks, which serve as cabins since there is nothing else. This mixture of men and women clustered on the rocks is charming. It feels more like being in a Watteau landscape than in the real world. So I have a source of motifs that are real, graceful and which may be of use to me. The bathing costumes are ravishing; and, as in Athens, the women are quite unabashed about the proximity of men on the neighbouring rocks. There's nothing more diverting, moving among the rocks, than to surprise young girls changing to swim and who - despite being English - are not at all put out. I hope to give you an idea of these charming landscapes, despite the slightness of what I shall be able to bring back." (quoted in: N. Wadley (ed.), Renoir A Retrospective, New York, 1987).