.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This work is registered by Guy-Patrice and Michel Dauberville in the Bernheim-Jeune Archives as an authentic work by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and it is sold with a letter confirming its authenticity.
In the present drawing, Renoir depicts Jean, his second son with Aline Victorine Charigot. Renoir's children Pierre, Jean and Claude are recurring models throughout his oeuvre, and posing his sons while they were drawing, guaranteed that his models would be both stationary and absorbed, such as in this intimate sketch. A painting of Jean drawing dated 1901 (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, fig. 1) can be related to this lot. Jean recalls the exact circumstances in which he sat for this painting, remembering that he was sick that day so Renoir kept him busy with some pencils and paper.
Jean Renoir was later to become a well-known film director and actor, making more than forty films, from the silent era of the 1920s to the end of the 1960s. He was also an author, and wrote the definitive biography of his father, Renoir My Father in 1962.
(fig. 1) Pierre Renoir, Jean Renoir dessinant, 1901. Collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.
In the present drawing, Renoir depicts Jean, his second son with Aline Victorine Charigot. Renoir's children Pierre, Jean and Claude are recurring models throughout his oeuvre, and posing his sons while they were drawing, guaranteed that his models would be both stationary and absorbed, such as in this intimate sketch. A painting of Jean drawing dated 1901 (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, fig. 1) can be related to this lot. Jean recalls the exact circumstances in which he sat for this painting, remembering that he was sick that day so Renoir kept him busy with some pencils and paper.
Jean Renoir was later to become a well-known film director and actor, making more than forty films, from the silent era of the 1920s to the end of the 1960s. He was also an author, and wrote the definitive biography of his father, Renoir My Father in 1962.
(fig. 1) Pierre Renoir, Jean Renoir dessinant, 1901. Collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.