拍品專文
In March 1885, Renoir's mistress Aline, gave birth to their son, Pierre and this was to have a profound effect upon his work. Fatherhood and the changes it brought about were reflected in his paintings, in their number and quality; he painted fewer works in 1985, and signed even fewer. He moved from the urban existence to an essentially rural one, spending several months in 1885 with Aline and Pierre in Aline's native village of Essoyes in Burgundy. The economic situation in France and the loss of Patrons left him short of money and he withdrew from his sociable life as a bachelor to an increasingly more private life. He rarely painted people socializing preferring instead more serious conventional subjects on small canvas.
In July 1885, Cézanne came to stay with Renoir at a house he had rented at La Roche-Guyon. The two artist's painted outdoors together. According to B. Ehrich White, Renoir His Life, Art and Letters, New York, 1984. p.155. what Meyer Schapiro has written of Cézanne applies equally to Renoir 'Though painting directly from nature, like the Impressionists, Cézanne thought often of the more formal art he admired in the Louvre. He wished to create works of a noble harmony like those of the old masters....[He sought their] completeness and order...that is, to find the forms of the painting in the landscape before him and to render the whole in a more natural colouring based on direct perception of tones and light.' (Schapiro, Paul Cézanne, 12).
'Les Meules' seems to embody the move Renoir made towards classicism at this time. Meules are not haystacks but cereal stacks of wheat or oats. They appear in the work of many painters of this time; Monet made the first in a series of 'Meules' pictures in 1885. The subject is also reminiscent of Millet, Pissarro and Van Gogh.
In July 1885, Cézanne came to stay with Renoir at a house he had rented at La Roche-Guyon. The two artist's painted outdoors together. According to B. Ehrich White, Renoir His Life, Art and Letters, New York, 1984. p.155. what Meyer Schapiro has written of Cézanne applies equally to Renoir 'Though painting directly from nature, like the Impressionists, Cézanne thought often of the more formal art he admired in the Louvre. He wished to create works of a noble harmony like those of the old masters....[He sought their] completeness and order...that is, to find the forms of the painting in the landscape before him and to render the whole in a more natural colouring based on direct perception of tones and light.' (Schapiro, Paul Cézanne, 12).
'Les Meules' seems to embody the move Renoir made towards classicism at this time. Meules are not haystacks but cereal stacks of wheat or oats. They appear in the work of many painters of this time; Monet made the first in a series of 'Meules' pictures in 1885. The subject is also reminiscent of Millet, Pissarro and Van Gogh.