Tête de jeune fille (Chapeau rouge)

Details

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Tête de jeune fille (Chapeau rouge)
signed top right 'Renoir'
oil on canvas
16 1/8 x 12 7/8 in. (41 x 32.7 cm.)
Painted in 1890

Provenance

Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the artist on April 18, 1896)
Dr. and Mrs. T. Edward Hanley, Bradford, Pennsylvania (acquired from the above on April 1, 1936)
Gift from the above to the present institution in 1974

Literature

F. Daulte, Auguste Renoir, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Lausanne, 1971, vol. I (Figures, 1860-1890), no. 644 (illustrated)
"Chronique des arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. LXXXI, Feb., 1973, p. 156 (illustrated, fig. 552)

Exhibited

New York, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings from the Hanley Collection, Nov.-Dec., 1961, p. 7, no. 30
New York, Gallery of Modern Art, Selections from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. T. Edward Hanley, Bradford, Pennsylvania, Jan.-March, 1967, p. 65. The exhibition traveled to Philadelphia, Museum of Art, April-May, 1967, and Denver, Art Museum, Feb.-April, 1968.
Columbus, Ohio, Gallery of Fine Arts, Works from the Hanley Collection, Nov.-Dec., 1968

Further details

*This lot may be exempt from sales tax as set forth in the Sales Tax Notice at the front of the catalogue.

Lot Essay

The model for this work was probably Gabrielle Renard, a cousin of Renoir's wife Aline. She was hired in August 1894, then aged sixteen, to help when Aline was expecting her second child; and she was to remain in the house for almost twenty years after Jean was born in September, becoming Renoir's favorite and most frequent model.

Renoir disliked professional models and Gabrielle had all the qualities he regarded as essential in a model. Her skin "took the light", she had the small-breasted, wide-hipped body he preferred, she was natural and relaxed and she was available to pose at any time. (W. Gaunt, Renoir, Oxford, 1982, p. 47)

In the present work, the eye of the viewer immediately feasts on the rich red of Gabrielle's dress, while her elaborate white hat with pink and vermillion ribbons is described with a mastery of brushstroke. The composition is deliberately seductive, the figure framed by soothing, non-intrusive foliage tones, her head turned in a coy fashion, her eyes hidden, only her sensuous pink cheek and red lips visible.

Le chapeau rouge (the present work) and Le chapeau jaune (Lot 124) have been together since they left the artist's studio in 1896. They were bought by Dr. T. Edward Hanley from Durand-Ruel on April 1, 1936, and gifted to the Denver Art Museum in 1974.