Gabrielle Aux Grenades by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
1841-1919 | French

Gabrielle aux grenades
(Gabrielle with pomegranates)

Signed "Renoir" (upper left)
Oil on canvas

Pierre-Auguste Renoir is synonymous with Impressionist portraiture, known for his light and airy canvases that perfectly capture the beauty and warmth of subjects. Among his most cherished subjects are those closest to him, particularly Gabrielle Renard, his family’s nanny. Gabrielle is featured in some of Renoir’s most famous portraits, each rendering something new about her monumental presence in Renoir's life and artistic practice. This stunning portrait, entitled Gabrielle aux grenades, is one of the most detailed and compelling portraits of Gabrielle Renard to come to the market in recent years.

As the nanny to Renoir’s children and the cousin of his wife, Aline, Gabrielle held a cherished place in Renoir's life and home. She played a crucial role in assisting the famed artist during his later years, positioning Renoir’s paintbrushes as he battled rheumatoid arthritis. This intimate portrait captures her gentle features in Renoir's iconic feathery style, epitomizing the essence of his celebrated oeuvre. From the quintessentially Renoir color palette to the delicate rendering of Gabrielle's eyes and the fruit before her, Renoir's affection for the subject is evident in this intimate work.

Painted in 1915, this portrait stands as a testament to the artist's prolific career, created during its final chapter. Despite suffering from arthritis, Renoir nonetheless achieves a rich depth of color and meticulous level of detail indicative of his finest technique, making this portrait an exceptional rarity. Renoir’s portraits of Gabrielle are now displayed in major museums and prestigious private collections, including the Musée d’Orsay, the National Gallery in London, the Harvard Art Museums, the Musée de Grenoble and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, which houses the largest collection of paintings by Renoir. 

Born in Limoges, France in 1841, Renoir began his career as an apprentice to a painter of porcelain wares. He later moved to Paris at the age of 21, enrolling at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts. It was here, while studying under Charles Gleyre, that Renoir attained a tremendous appreciation for the academic style of painting, a quality that would last throughout his career. This was also the time during which he met Claude Monet and several other classmates, with whom he would later form the Impressionists.

Working closely with Monet, Renoir began experimenting with the portrayal of light and its effect on his canvases. The youngest member of the Impressionist movement, an astute Renoir recognized how a subject was constantly changing due to the dynamic effects of light on color. Relying heavily upon his academic training that focused on composition, lines and descriptive details, Renoir distinguished himself among his contemporaries. His intuitive use of color and expansive brushstroke, along with an acute attention to his subject, have placed him among the finest painters in history.

This work comes with its letter of authenticity from the Wildenstein-Plattner Institute.

Painted 1915

Canvas: 19 1/4" high x 15 1/8" wide (48.90 x 38.42 cm)
Frame: 29 1/4" high x 25 3/4" wide x 3 3/8" deep (74.30 x 65.41 x 8.57 cm)

View the Dossier

Provenance:
Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Robert de Galea, Paris
Private Collection, Paris
Wen-Fa Fine Art, Taipei
Private Collection, Germany
Sale, Paris, Drouot-Montaigne, 20 March 1990, no. 60
Private Collection, New York
M.S. Rau, New Orleans
Private Collection, Texas
M.S. Rau, New Orleans

Literature:
François Daulte, Auguste Renoir: Catalogue Raisonné de l'ouevre peint, 1971, Vol. III, unpublished, letter from the author
Ambroise Vollard, Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Tableaux, pastels et dessins, 1918, no. 405, p. 101 (illustrated)
Guy Patrice and Maurice Dauberville, Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, 1911-1919, 2014, no. 4246, p. 357-58 (illustrated)
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue critique of Pierre-Auguste Renoir being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute established from the archives of François Daulte, Durand-Ruel, Venturi, Vollard and Wildenstein.