Norbert Levy, Berlin
Margret Kainer (née Levy), Berlin (sold: Leo Spik, Berlin, May 31, 1935, lot 101)
Private Collection, Europe (sold: Sotheby's, London, June 20, 2006, lot 317, in cooperation with the heirs of Margret Levy-Kainer)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owners 

The canvas is unlined and under UV light: no inpainting is apparent. There are artist's pinhole in the corners. Rich impasto is preserved in the blooms. Apart from a light stretcher mark along the upper edge and a few flecks of white pigment along center lower edge, this work in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Created with careful attention to light and shadow, Bouquet de fleurs exhibits the artist's ability to replicate the pure luxuriance of a floral arrangement. As was the case for many of the Impressionist painters, Renoir did not need to rely on the trompe l'oeil techniques that had been utilized by artists for centuries in order to render this bouquet so convincingly. Instead, he drew upon his own creative ingenuity and his initial impressions of the image, rendering it with extraordinary freshness. Few artists of his generation would approach this subject with the richness and sensitivity that is demonstrated in his floral pictures. Renoir once said of his flower pictures, "What seems to me most significant about our movement [Impressionism] is that we have freed painting from the importance of the subject. I am at liberty to paint flowers and call them flowers, without their needing to tell a story" (quoted in Peter Mitchell, European Flower Painters, London, 1973, pp. 211-12).

It is not surprising that a floral still-life, especially one as lush and abundant as this, would have appealed to Renoir. Both he and Monet painted several more during the early years when the Impressionists first exhibited their work. Perhaps it was his early success that encouraged Renoir to continue to paint still-lifes of flowers throughout his celebrated career. As was noted at the time of a retrospective exhibition in 1988, "For an artist enamoured with color, flowers provide a perfect subject -- infinitely varied, malleable to any arrangement. Several of Renoir's most beautiful paintings... are flower pieces. Flowers appear frequently in his paintings as hat decorations or as part of the landscape behind figures even when they are not the main motif. Renoir himself said that when painting flowers he was able to paint more freely and boldly, without the mental effort he made with a model before him" (Renoir Retrospective (ex🌟hibition catalogue), Nagoya City Art Museum, 1988, p.♏ 247).