Estate of the artist
Léon Marseille, France (1934)
Dr Albert Charpentier, Paris (sold: Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 30th March 1954, lot 26)
Purchased at the above sale by the father of the present owner

Paris, Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Exposition d'œuvres des dix dernières années (1909-1919) de Renoir, 1934, no. 44
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Un siècle de peinture française, 1938, no. 219 (as dating from 1916)
Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Renoir in the 20th Century, 2010, no. 148

MM. Bernheim-Jeune (ed.), L'Atelier de Renoir, Paris, 1931, vol. II, no. 644, illustrated pl. 201


To be included in the Renoir catalogue critique being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute from the François Daulte, Durand-Ruel, Venturi, Vollard and Wildenstein archives.

The canvas is unlined. There are artist's tackholes by the upper and left framing edges. Apart from three very thin hairlines of retouching just below the upper edge and across the centre, a small area of retouching in the lower left corner and a tiny spot of retouching in the lower right, visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly stronger, richer and more contrasted in the original.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A wonderfully tender and harmonious portrait, La Lecture is one of the most beautiful, touching and serene of Renoir's late works. Indeed, a photograph of the major 1934 Renoir exhibition at Paul Rosenberg's Paris gallery shows the present work next to Renoir's undisputed late masterpiece Les Baigneuses of 1918-19 (fig. 1). Intimate and filled with subtle sensuality, La Lecture lyrically demonstrates Renoir's masterly ability to portray his figures in an entirely natural way. In later years, success allowed him to paint the sitters who most interested and touched him, especially his family and those with whom he chose to be in contact. Here he magically catches an intimate moment in which two beautiful young women, oblivious to all around them, even thওe artist, are entranced by the words they are reading.

 

In 1954, La Lecture was sold at the Galerie Charpentier in Paris to a private English collector in whose family possession it has remained until now. Its first museum showing since 1938 was in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's landmark exhibition Renoir in the 20th Century held in 2010, where it was displayed in the same room as Les Baigneuses, hanging between the Courtauld Gallery's Femme nouant son lacet and the Art Gallery of Ontario's Le Concert (fig. 2).

 

Whilst the sitters depicted here cannot be identified with certainty, the dark-haired woman on the right closely resembles Gabrielle (see Gabrielle à la rose of 1911, in the Musée d'Orsay), the young maid who remained with the Renoir family until 1913 and became the artist's favourite model. Although Gabrielle had left the Renoir household by the time La Lecture was 🧜painted, her nineteen-year long engagement with the artist made a lasting impression on him. The 🌞other figure may be Andrée Heuschling, who was introduced to Renoir by Matisse and married Jean Renoir in 1921.

 

In his later work, Renoir was able to reconcile his profound love for the painters of the past – among them Titian, Raphael, Rubens, Fragonard and Watteau – with his vision of the life that surrounded him. This, in part, accounted for his influence on twentieth century artists, most notably Picasso, Matisse and Bonnard. As John House wrote in the catalogue of the recent landmark exhibition: 'Throughout his career, Renoir tried to break down the barriers between the art of the past and his own direct visual experience of the world around him. The past painters whom he most admired were those whose work, as he saw it, revealed a belief in timeless notions of beauty, but at the same time was enlivened by direct observation' (J. House, in Renoir in the 20th Century (exhibition catalogue), op. cit., p. 42).

 

Miraculously Renoir was able to transcend his suffering, the death of his wife and the wounding of his two sons in the First World War, and to continue painting with undiminished passion. He touchingly summarised his relentless pursuit of beauty: 'Pain passes, but beauty endures. I am perfectly happy and will not die until I have created my masterpiece', he told Matisse. La Lecture is a supreme manifestation of the artist joyously continuing to paint the sublime beauty of women. His vibrant, resonating colours dominated by his signature red hue became a defining feature of his late work. As Renoir explained to the American painter Walter Pach: 'I want a red to be sonorous, to sound like a bell; if it doesn't turn out that way, I put more reds or other colours till I get it. [...] there are myriads of tiny tints. I must find the ones that will make the flesh on my canvas live and quiver' (W. Pach, Queer Thing Painting, 1938, reprinted in Nicholas Wadley (ed.), Renoir. A Retrospective, New York, 1987, p. 244).

 

The lasting 💧legacy of Renoir's late painting lies also in the inspiration he provided to the generation of avant-garde artists that followed. Renoir's richness of colour, uninhibited boldness, freedom and the monumentality of his figures greatly impressed Picasso, whose monumental neo-Classical paintings from the early 1920s (fig. 3) owe much to the Renoir works he saw in Gertrude Stein's collection and at the dealer Paul Rosenberg. Picasso's studio was next to Rosenberg's gallery, but despite his attempts to introduce them, the two artists never met. Picasso later acquired seven R𝓰enoir paintings, the majority depicting the late monumental figures.

 

Bonnard met Renoir in the 1890s through La Revue Blanche. 'You have a little note of charm', Renoir told him, 'Do not neglect it. It is a precious gift'. Bonnard's intimiste interiors, such as Le Déjeuner (fig. 4), are💦 a testament to his deep affinity for Renoir's🌜 work.

 

Matisse, who lived in the South of France, first visited Renoir in 1917. He would watch Renoir paint in his garden and sometimes painted there himself. He owned several late Renoir works and continued to see his family after the artist's death. In 1920 he wrote: 'The visit I made last week to Renoir's, where I looked over his pictures in my own time, helped me a great deal' (H. Matisse, quoted in ibid., p. 139). The particular nature of Renoir's artistic genius and his heroism made a deep impression on Matisse. He described Renoir's late work as 'The loveliest nudes ever painted. No one has done better' and proclaimed Les Baigneuses 'His masterpiece, one of the most beautiful pictures ever painted' (quoted in ibid., p. 142). Inspired by Renoir, Matisse returned to painting nudes. His vibrant yet intimate interiors, such as Le Paravent mauresque (fig. 5) are wonderfully reminiscent of La Lecture.

 

The writer and critic Théodore Duret might well have had La Lecture in mind when he wrote: 'Renoir excels at portraits. Not only does he catch the external features, but through them he pinpoints the model's character and inner self. I doubt whether any painter has ever interpreted women in a more seductive manner. The deft and lively touches of Renoir's brush are charming, supple and unrestrained, making flesh transparent and tinting the cheeks and lips with a perfect living hue. Renoir's women are enchantresses' (T. Duret, reprinted in Histoire des peintres impressionnistes, Paris, 1922, pp. 27-28).

 

 

 

Fig. 1, A view of Exposition d'œuvres des dix dernières années (1909-1919) de Renoir, held in 1934 at the Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Paris. The present work is next to Les Baigneuses.

Fig. 2, A view of the exhibition Renoir in the 20th Century, held in 2010 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The present work is between Femme nouant son lacet and Le Concert

Fig. 3, Pierre Bonnard, Le Déjeuner or Le Petit déjeuner, circa 1932, oil on canvas, Musée d'Art Moderne de la V♈ille de Paris

Fig. 4, Pablo Picasso, La Lecture de la lettre, 1921-22, oil on canvas, Musée Picasso, Paris

Fig. 5, Henri Matisse, Le Paravent mauresque, 1921,⛎ oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art, P𓆉hiladelphia