Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Ruth O'Hana Gallery, London
Paul Maze, France
Maurice Harris
Private Collection, Chicago
Sale: Sotheby's New York, 9 May 2007, lot 146
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

London, Ruth O'Hana Gallery, Exhibition of French Masters of the 19th & 20th Centuries, 1957, no. 41
Singapore, Opera Gallery, MasterPieces, The Ultimate Collection, October 2007, illustrated in colour p.14

Ed. Bernheim-Jeune, L'Atelier de Renoir, Paris, 1931, vol. 2, no. 379, illustrated pl. 122 (as part of a larger canvas)

The canvas is lined and UV examination reveals some intermittent retouchings along the extreme upper edge and there are two minute lines of craquelure to the centre of the extreme left edge. Otherwise, this work is in overall 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. 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."

The turn of the century marked not only a shift in Renoir's personal life, but also in his painting. The material success of the 1890s afforded the artist increasing freedom, allowing him and his family to retreat from Paris to the Mediterranean coast where he painted the current work. John House wrote that, 'The immediate reason for these changes was Renoir's health, undermined by the onset of arthritis, but they reflected a more general change in his art, towards the Classicism of the Mediterranean and, more particularly, towards ideas then associated with the revival of Provencal culture' (quoted in Anne Distel, Renoir, exhibition catalogue, Hayward Gallery, New York, 1985, p. 268). For the remaining period of his life, Renoir concentrated on combining the tenets of Impressionism with those of more classical forms of art. House continues, 'Physically, too, the south offered him a site where he could fuse observed reality with a framework of tradition [...] These traditions from the past allowed him to find what he had been unable to find among his artist contemporaries in Paris; an unquestioning belief in human beauty, based on the celebration of the splendours of the visible beauty rather than on the archeological reconstructions favoured by academic art schools' (ibid., pp.16-17).

In Laveuse dans un paysage, a woman kneels at the bank of a stream in the provincial south of France where she washes her clothes. Aware of the narrative limits of portraiture, Renoir found inspiration in the natural serenity of the Mediterranean coast which allowed him to depict the relationship between figures and the landscape that surrounded them. Renoir described his approach to focusing on the atmosphere of a place: 'My landscape is only an accessory; at the moment I'm trying to fuse it with my figures" (ibid., p. 289). The figure diss🌼olves into the feathery brushstrokes of the foliage and is drawn into an active relationship with her environment. The warm colours suffuse the grasses and trees as well as the woman. She is not deliberately posing for the work as Renoir often sought to depict the figure in a natural state, unaware of the artist's gaze. This charming scene is a wonderful example of the arcadian scenes of figures in landscapes that had charcterised his work i꧙n the last few years.