Victor Chocquet, Paris (acquired from the artist and sold from the estate: Galerie Geo☂rges Pet🐼it, Paris, July 1-4,1899, no. 152)

Durand-Rue༺l, Paris and New York (acquired at the above sa♌le)

Martin Ryerson, Chicago

The Art Institute of Chica𒆙go (acquired from the above in 1927)

Durand-Ruel, New Yor🅠k (acquired from the above in 19🔥45)

Sam Salz, New York

Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block, Chicago (acquired in 19🌜49)

Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ittleson, Jr., New Y⛦ork (acquired by 1ඣ955)

Acquavella Galleries, New York

Mr. and Mrs. Josef Rosensaft, New York (acquired from the above in 1974 and sold: Sotheby's, New York, March 17, 1976, lo💜t 8)

P🥃rivate Collection, London (acquired at the🐼 above sale)

British Raꦇil Pension Fund, London (sold: Sotheby's, London, April 4, 1989, lot 16)

Private Coll♔ection, London (sold: Sotheby's, New Yor꧋k, November 16, 1998, lot 44)

Acquired at the above sale

Paris, Durand-Ruel, Exposition des oeuvres de Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1883, no. 69

Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Portraits par Renoir, 1908

Paris, Durand-Ruel, Portraits par Renoir, 1912, no. 54

Paris, Durand-Ruel, Tableaux, pastels, dessins par Renoir, 1920, no. 65

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum & San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Art, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1955, no. 96, ilဣlustrated in color in the catalogue

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Summer Loan Exhibition, 1966, no. 148

New York, Wildenstein & Co., Renoir, In Commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Renoir's Death, 1969, no. 39, illustrated in the catalogue

New York, Wildenstein & Co., Renoir, The Gentle Rebel, 1974, no. 28, illustrated in the catalogue

London, Thos. Agnew & Son, Ltd., Thirty-five Paintings from the Collection of the British Rail Pension Fund, 1984, no. 25, illustrated in the catalogue

Hamilton, New York, The Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University; Austin, Texas, The Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas; Palm Beach, Florida, The Society of the Four Arts, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Works from a British Collection, 1986-87, no. 39, illustrated in color in th🦹e catalogue

London, The Victor📖ia and Albert Museum, on teꦺmporary loan 1977-80

 

Wynford Dewhurst, Impressionist Painting, Its Genesis and Development, London, 1904, illustrated p. 52

Jules Meier-Graefe, Auguste Renoir, Paris, 1912, illustrated pl. 102

Ambroise Vollard, Tableaux, pastels et dessins de Pierre-Auguste Renoir, vol.1, Paris, 1918, no. 336, illustrated p. 84

Ambroise Vollard, "Le Salon de Madame Charpentier," in L'Art et les Artistes, Paris, 1920, no. IV, illustrated p. 164

Georges Rivière, Renoir et ses amis, Paris, 1921, illustrated p. 39

Albert André, Auguste Renoir, Paris, 1928, illustrated pl. 13

Georges Rivière, "Les Enfants dans l'oeuvre et dans le vie de Paul Cézanne et de Renoir," L'Art Vivant, Paris, 1928, illustrated p. 675

Jules Meier-Graefe, Renoir, Leipzig, 1929, illustrated p. 140

Georges Grappe, L'Art Vivant, Paris, July 1933, illustrated p. 280

Claude Roger-Marx, Renoir, Paris, 1933, illustrated p. 83

Charles Terrasse, Cinquante Portraits de Renoir, Paris, 1941, illustrated pl. 20

John Rewald, ed., Renoir Drawings, New York, 1946, illustrated fig. 12

François Daulte, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Watercolours, Pastels and Drawings, London, 1959, illustrated pl. 2

John Rewald, The History of Impressionism, London, 1973, illustrated p. 475

Barbara Ehrlich White, Renoir; His Life, Art, and Letters, New York, 1984, illustrated p. 102

François Fosca, Renoir, Paris, 1985, illustrated p. 150

John Rewald, Studies in Impressionism, New York, 1985, illustrated p. 173

John Rewald, Cézanne, A Biography, New York, 1986, illustrated p. 125

Barbara Ehrlich White, Impressionists Side by Side, New York, 1996, discussed p. 269

John Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 1, New York, 1996, illustrated p. 302

Guy Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Renoir, Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. 1, Paris, 2007, no. 617, ill𝔍ustrated p. 589

Nicholas Wadley, ed., Renoir, A Retrospective, New York, 1987, illustrated p. 340

Albert Kostenevich, Hidden Treasures Revealed; Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, New York, 1995, illustrated p. 192

In very good condition. Pastel colors are exceptionally lively, fresh and undisturbed. Pastel on paper tambourine mounted to a wooden stretcher. There are artist pinholes visible; three in the upper left corner, two in the upper right corner, and one in the lower left corner. Minor chips and flakes missing along all edges due to prior frame abrasion and handling. Sheet is faintly time-darkened. Glue stains and remnants visible along extreme edges, especially visible along top margin. Minute flecks of gold at all corners. Tape remnants along the extreme edges, verso. Otherwise fine.
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.

Renoir executed this magnificent portrait of fellow artist Paul Cézanne in 1880, about two decades after the two had met while studying at the Académie Suisse in Paris. This portrait marks the beginning of a period of close friendship between the two artists. As John Rewald explains, "Cézanne's relations with Renoir were particularly close throughout the 1880s. Early in 1882, the two friends met in L'Estaque and worked there together. At the end of the following year, Renoir and Monet, having gone to Genoa, stopped on their return in L'Estaque for a short visit with Cézanne. During the summer of 1885, Cézanne, Hortense Fiquet, and their son spent a month with Renoir and his family at La Roche-Guyon. Four years later, the Renoirs came to Aix, renting a property owned by Cézanne's brother-in-law, where the two worked once more together" (Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, op. cit., p. 302).

Renoir himself wrote about their comraderie in a letter to Victor Chocquet, an early patron for the artist and the first owner of the current work: "I've just been sick and I'm convalescing. I can't tell you how kind Cézanne has been to me. He wanted to bring me his whole house. With his mother, we are having a big dinner party at his place for our separation because he is going back to Paris while I have to stay somewhere in the South: strict Doctor's orders" (quoted in Barbara Ehrlich White, Renoir; His Life, Art, and Letters, op. cit., p. 121).

Choquet played a vital role in championing the careers of both artists. Renoir had first introduced Chocquet to Cézanne's works during a visit to the atrists' shop of Père Tanguy in 1875, where the collector immediately bought a canvas and went on to become one of the most devoted collectors of Cézanne's work. Both Renoir and Cézanne painted Chocquet's portrait at various times in the late 1870s (fig. 2). Portrait de Cézanne remained in Chocquet's collection until his death; after the death of his wife in 1899, his collection was sold at the Hôtel Drouot at which time it conta💎ined thirty-two works by Cézanne and eleven by Renoir.

At some point shortly following its execution, this work became the basis for a self-portrait by Cézanne that followed the composition of the pastel quite faithfully (fig. 1). John Rewald posits three possibilites for the execution of Cézanne's self-portrait. "It appears most likely that Cézanne obtained the pastel directly from Renoir... Cézanne could have taken the pastel to Pontoise, where he may have made the copy. This would explain why the copy first belonged to Camille Pissarro... Yet it is conceivable that Renoir drew the likeness specifically for Victor Chocquet, of whose collection it was part. Strangely enough, Chocquet did not own a single self-portrait by Cézanne; he may well have commissioned this pastel as he commissioned other works. In that case Cézanne may have copied it in 1882 at Hattenville.... It seems more logical to presume that after trading the pastel with Renoir, copying it in Pontoise, and offering the copy to Pissarro, Cézanne presented Renoir's orginal to Chocquet precisely because the latter was anxious to obtain one of his self-portraits" (Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, op. cit., p. 302).

Renoir also continued to draw inspiration from his portrait. He used Portrait de Cézanne in two later works, a lithograph in💯 1902 and a 🌌portrait medallion surrounded by a garland of flowers and fruit executed with the assistance of Richard Guino between 1915 and 1917, which now adorns a small fountain in Aix-en-Provence.