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Lot Essay
By the early 1880s Renoir was enjoying financial security through the commercial success of his work. This new found wealth allowed him to travel abroad and for the first time in his career he undertook trips to Algeria and Italy. The numerous sketches and drawings he made from these journeys indicate the profound effect the Mediterranean landscape and people had on his work. According to Barbara Erlich White, "he sought to use light more pervasively in both his outdoor and indoor figure paintings. To him this light was both external (sunlight, atmosphere, reflections) and internal (the warmth of personality, the energy among figures, the magic between the model and the artist/observer)" (Renoir His Life, Art, and Letters, New York, 1984, p. 105).
Renoir had been greatly impressed with the frescos by Raphael that he had studied on his visit to Rome in 1882 and wrote to Mme Charpentier, "by doing a lot of looking, I will, I think, have gained that grandeur and simplicity of the ancient painters" (quoted in B.E. White, "Renoir's Trip to Italy", Art Bulletin, December 1969, p. 350). In the present painting the solid form of the figure and the rich jewel tones of the palette are suggestive of the Renaissance master. Renoir had trouble finding models for his paintings in Italy, made difficult by his not speaking their language. Many times he used the daughters of his landlords or women he observed on the streets but despite these challenges he wrote enthusiastically to his friend Bernard that these models, "looked exactly like Leonardo da Vinci's Catherine" (quoted in op. cit., pp. 347-348). The Sicilian woman in the present painting was probably inspired by Renoir's 1882 visit to Palermo where he had gone to paint the portrait of the composer Richard Wagner. In the preface to the catalogue for Renoir's 1883 one-man show at Galeries Durand-Ruel in Paris Duret wrote, "(in Renoir) we recognize at first sight the ability to paint woman in all her grace and delicacy ... we see him constantly accumulating his coloring and finally succeeding in effortlessly achieving the most daring combinations of colors" (op. cit., p. 132).
Renoir had been greatly impressed with the frescos by Raphael that he had studied on his visit to Rome in 1882 and wrote to Mme Charpentier, "by doing a lot of looking, I will, I think, have gained that grandeur and simplicity of the ancient painters" (quoted in B.E. White, "Renoir's Trip to Italy", Art Bulletin, December 1969, p. 350). In the present painting the solid form of the figure and the rich jewel tones of the palette are suggestive of the Renaissance master. Renoir had trouble finding models for his paintings in Italy, made difficult by his not speaking their language. Many times he used the daughters of his landlords or women he observed on the streets but despite these challenges he wrote enthusiastically to his friend Bernard that these models, "looked exactly like Leonardo da Vinci's Catherine" (quoted in op. cit., pp. 347-348). The Sicilian woman in the present painting was probably inspired by Renoir's 1882 visit to Palermo where he had gone to paint the portrait of the composer Richard Wagner. In the preface to the catalogue for Renoir's 1883 one-man show at Galeries Durand-Ruel in Paris Duret wrote, "(in Renoir) we recognize at first sight the ability to paint woman in all her grace and delicacy ... we see him constantly accumulating his coloring and finally succeeding in effortlessly achieving the most daring combinations of colors" (op. cit., p. 132).