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Lot Essay
This painting will be included in the forthcoming Renoir catalogue critique being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute and established from the archive funds of François Daulte, Durand-Ruel, Venturi, Vollard and Wildenstein.
We are grateful to Guy-Patrice and Michel Dauberville for confirming that this picture is included in their Bernheim-Jeune archives as an authentic work.
In a letter to Berthe Morisot of 21 November 1894, Renoir declined an invitation to dinner on the grounds that instead he was to be introduced to M. and Mme Lerolle. This is the first recorded contact between Renoir and Henri Lerolle (1848-1929), in spite of the fact that both men were painters and Lerolle had been a close friend of Degas', whose work he collected, since the early 1880s. Lerolle was a regular exhibitor at the Salon in the 1870s and 1880s with a painting style that lay in the modern camp. The friendship between the two men quickly grew and in 1897 Renoir executed two portaits of Lerolle's daughter Christine (Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio and Private collection), as well as a double portrait of the sisters Christine and Yvonne at the piano, where some of their father's collection of Degas is visible in the background (Orangerie, Paris). Both Lerolle daughters, consolidating their positions in the Parisian haute bourgeoisie, went on to marry sons of the collector Henri Rouart.
In the present work Renoir shows the red flash of the Legion of Honour on Lerolle's lapel, a sign of recognition for his artistic contribution. Lerolle was also a keen supporter of younger artists such as Maurice Denis and Pierre Bonnard, as well as his contemporary Gauguin. The Lerolle salon was also a meeting point for members of Parisian literary and musical circles - Debussy, Valery and Gide were regulars. Mme Lerolle's younger sister was moreover married to the composer Ernest Chausson, aside from the fact that Lerolle himself was an amateur violinist and composer. It was perhaps through this connection to Chausson that the young Denis secured an important commission for the composer's Paris home in 1894.
When the present work was offered for sale by the descendants of Henri Lerolle at Galerie Charpentier in Paris in 1960, the canvas was 51 cm. wide with a garland depicted at the left-hand margin. Between 1960 and the public auction in 1973, when the work was acquired on behalf of the Rau Foundation, this section of canvas was removed.
We are grateful to Guy-Patrice and Michel Dauberville for confirming that this picture is included in their Bernheim-Jeune archives as an authentic work.
In a letter to Berthe Morisot of 21 November 1894, Renoir declined an invitation to dinner on the grounds that instead he was to be introduced to M. and Mme Lerolle. This is the first recorded contact between Renoir and Henri Lerolle (1848-1929), in spite of the fact that both men were painters and Lerolle had been a close friend of Degas', whose work he collected, since the early 1880s. Lerolle was a regular exhibitor at the Salon in the 1870s and 1880s with a painting style that lay in the modern camp. The friendship between the two men quickly grew and in 1897 Renoir executed two portaits of Lerolle's daughter Christine (Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio and Private collection), as well as a double portrait of the sisters Christine and Yvonne at the piano, where some of their father's collection of Degas is visible in the background (Orangerie, Paris). Both Lerolle daughters, consolidating their positions in the Parisian haute bourgeoisie, went on to marry sons of the collector Henri Rouart.
In the present work Renoir shows the red flash of the Legion of Honour on Lerolle's lapel, a sign of recognition for his artistic contribution. Lerolle was also a keen supporter of younger artists such as Maurice Denis and Pierre Bonnard, as well as his contemporary Gauguin. The Lerolle salon was also a meeting point for members of Parisian literary and musical circles - Debussy, Valery and Gide were regulars. Mme Lerolle's younger sister was moreover married to the composer Ernest Chausson, aside from the fact that Lerolle himself was an amateur violinist and composer. It was perhaps through this connection to Chausson that the young Denis secured an important commission for the composer's Paris home in 1894.
When the present work was offered for sale by the descendants of Henri Lerolle at Galerie Charpentier in Paris in 1960, the canvas was 51 cm. wide with a garland depicted at the left-hand margin. Between 1960 and the public auction in 1973, when the work was acquired on behalf of the Rau Foundation, this section of canvas was removed.