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Lot Essay
Sold with a photo-certificate from the Wildenstein Institute dated Paris, le 12 juillet 2002 and to be included in the forthcoming Renoir catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by them.
Wildenstein dates this work to 1902, however, cleaning has revealed the date 1892 in the lower right corner.
Renoir was the most celebrated portrait painter of his day thanks to the publicity given to him by his friendship with Madame Charpentier and Mademoiselle Samary, the great society hostesses of late 19th Century Paris. It was through them that Renoir met and befriended the elite of Parisian society.
Madame Charpentier was pivotal in persuading the Salon to accept portraiture in its annual exhibitions. Théodore Duret recorded, "Mme. Charpentier was not satisfied with showing her portrait in her own home, to have it admired by the people who frequented it, but wanted it and Mlle. Samary's to be seen at the official Salon, also. She began a campaign to achieve her ends. If her influence had not been brought to bear upon the members of the jury, and if the portriats sent had not been the portriats of such women as Mme. Charpentier and Mlle. Samary, Renoir would never, at that period, have been able to have his works accepted. The portraits of Mme. Charpentier and Mlle. Samary were exhibited in the Salon of 1879. At that time there was only one Salon and everybody in Paris went to it. The works shown there were the subjects of innumerable comments and articles written by journalists and writers of all kinds. On account of the high rank of the sitters and because of their brilliant and luminous qualities, Renoir's canvases were sure to attract special attention, and they did. They were extensively viewed, and therefore, after that Salon, Renoir found himself in a very different position" (T. Duret, Renoir, Paris/New York, 1937, pp.43-44).
Renoir's finest female portraits brought him great fame and fortune and in the decade following the 1879 Salon, he executed a series of memorable portraits of Madame Alphonse Daudet, Madame Clapisson (fig. 3) and Madame Bérarde, amongst others. Today most of these are housed in major international museums.
It was a double portrait of 1889 painted only three years before the present work which was to bring Renoir lasting financial security. In 1890 the celebrated dealer Durand-Ruel paid 2,100 francs for his Young girls reading (fig. 2) and made it clear that he wished to acquire more of Renoir's best portraits and female subjects. In 1889 Durand-Ruel had bought only two figure paintings but in 1890 he purchased seventeen.
In the early 1890s Renoir was introduced to Adrien Mithouard (1854-1919). Their meeting resulted in the present grand portrait of Mithouard's young wife. Aside from his presidency of the Paris City Council, Mithouard had a highly influential position at the heart of literary Paris. A frequenter of all the artistic Salons, Mithouard was an active essayist, poet, publisher and politician. At the time that his wife's portrait was being painted by Renoir, Mithouard was publishing his first volumes of poetry. In 1901 he founded the celebrated L'Occident and between 1900 and 1910 wrote for major volumes on the subject of Western Civilisation. He was a staunch supporter of cultural France and Renoir doubtless admired his passion for the great French tradition. It was for these qualities that he was made President of the Paris City Council until his death in 1919.
Putting these glamorous society portraits in context with his Impressionist landscapes, Duret wrote, "He produced a limited number [of portraits], but they gave him a means of living by bringing him in contact with rich people, and from the artistic point of view, they enabled him to get rid of the reputation he had obtained along with the other impressionists of being a coarse artist. Thanks to them he was able to represent the elegance and distinction of the French woman of the world." (op. cit., 52).
Wildenstein dates this work to 1902, however, cleaning has revealed the date 1892 in the lower right corner.
Renoir was the most celebrated portrait painter of his day thanks to the publicity given to him by his friendship with Madame Charpentier and Mademoiselle Samary, the great society hostesses of late 19th Century Paris. It was through them that Renoir met and befriended the elite of Parisian society.
Madame Charpentier was pivotal in persuading the Salon to accept portraiture in its annual exhibitions. Théodore Duret recorded, "Mme. Charpentier was not satisfied with showing her portrait in her own home, to have it admired by the people who frequented it, but wanted it and Mlle. Samary's to be seen at the official Salon, also. She began a campaign to achieve her ends. If her influence had not been brought to bear upon the members of the jury, and if the portriats sent had not been the portriats of such women as Mme. Charpentier and Mlle. Samary, Renoir would never, at that period, have been able to have his works accepted. The portraits of Mme. Charpentier and Mlle. Samary were exhibited in the Salon of 1879. At that time there was only one Salon and everybody in Paris went to it. The works shown there were the subjects of innumerable comments and articles written by journalists and writers of all kinds. On account of the high rank of the sitters and because of their brilliant and luminous qualities, Renoir's canvases were sure to attract special attention, and they did. They were extensively viewed, and therefore, after that Salon, Renoir found himself in a very different position" (T. Duret, Renoir, Paris/New York, 1937, pp.43-44).
Renoir's finest female portraits brought him great fame and fortune and in the decade following the 1879 Salon, he executed a series of memorable portraits of Madame Alphonse Daudet, Madame Clapisson (fig. 3) and Madame Bérarde, amongst others. Today most of these are housed in major international museums.
It was a double portrait of 1889 painted only three years before the present work which was to bring Renoir lasting financial security. In 1890 the celebrated dealer Durand-Ruel paid 2,100 francs for his Young girls reading (fig. 2) and made it clear that he wished to acquire more of Renoir's best portraits and female subjects. In 1889 Durand-Ruel had bought only two figure paintings but in 1890 he purchased seventeen.
In the early 1890s Renoir was introduced to Adrien Mithouard (1854-1919). Their meeting resulted in the present grand portrait of Mithouard's young wife. Aside from his presidency of the Paris City Council, Mithouard had a highly influential position at the heart of literary Paris. A frequenter of all the artistic Salons, Mithouard was an active essayist, poet, publisher and politician. At the time that his wife's portrait was being painted by Renoir, Mithouard was publishing his first volumes of poetry. In 1901 he founded the celebrated L'Occident and between 1900 and 1910 wrote for major volumes on the subject of Western Civilisation. He was a staunch supporter of cultural France and Renoir doubtless admired his passion for the great French tradition. It was for these qualities that he was made President of the Paris City Council until his death in 1919.
Putting these glamorous society portraits in context with his Impressionist landscapes, Duret wrote, "He produced a limited number [of portraits], but they gave him a means of living by bringing him in contact with rich people, and from the artistic point of view, they enabled him to get rid of the reputation he had obtained along with the other impressionists of being a coarse artist. Thanks to them he was able to represent the elegance and distinction of the French woman of the world." (op. cit., 52).