French, 1841-1919

Pierre Auguste Renoir was one of the best loved of the Impressionists, always painting the beauties of nature, harmonious landscapes, flowers, fruit, and women. He began his career at the age of thirteen as a painter on porcelain in a factory in Paris. He soon gave this up in favor of painting fans and decorationg blinds which he did until 1862, when he had saved enough money to support himself without work for a time, thus enabling him to enroll in classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He entered the atelier of Charles Gleyre, and there met and became friends with Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Frederic Bazille.

During the early years, Renoir and Monet sometimes worked side by side, painting the same scenes and views at Argenteuil on the Seine where the two painters spent the summer. In 1874, Renoir and Monet and a number of other artists, including Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, and Edgar Degas, who, like themselves were displeased with the Salon jury, held the first exhibition of the group which was to become know as the Impressionists.

French, 1841-1919

Provenance:

Acquired directly from the artist's family by the grandfather of the present owner in circa 1922.

A French painter originally associated with the Impressionist movement, Renoir’s early works were typically Impressionist snapshots of real life, full of sparkling color and light. By the mid-1880s, however, he had broken with the movement to apply a more disciplined, formal technique to portraits and figure paintings, particularly of women (e.g., Bathers, 1884-87).

In 1854 he began work as a painter in a porcelain factory in Paris, gaining experience with the light, fresh colors that were to distinguish his Impressionist work and also learning the importance of good craftsmanship. His predilection towards light-hearted themes was also influenced by the great Rococco masters, whose works he studied in the Louvre.

In 1862 he entered the studio of Gleyre and there formed a lasting friendship with Monet, Sisley, and Bazille. He painted with them in the Barbizon district and became a leading member of the group of Impressionists who met at the Café Guerbois. His relationship with Monet was particularly close at this time, and their paintings of the beauty spot called La Grenouillère done in 1869 (an example by Renoir is in the National museum, Stockholm) are regarded as the classic early statements of the Impressionist style.

He began to achieve success as a portraitist in the late 1870s. the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel began buying his work regularly in 1881. After a period of experimentation with what he called his `manière aigre' (harsh or sour manner) in the mid 1880s, he developed a softer and more supple kind of handling. At the same time he turned from contemporary themes to more timeless subjects, particularly nudes, but also pictures of young girls in unspecific settings. In the 1890s Renoir began to suffer from rheumatism, and from 1903 (by which time he was world-famous) he lived in the warmth of the south of France. The rheumatism eventually crippled him (by 1912 he was confined to a wheelchair), but he continued to paint until the end of his life.

Renoir is perhaps the best-loved of all the Impressionists, for his subjects---pretty children, flowers, beautiful scenes, above all lovely women---have instant appeal, and he communicated the joy he took in them with great directness. `Why shouldn't art be pretty?', he said, `There are enough unpleasant things in the world.' He was one of the great worshippers of the female form, and he said `I never think I have finished a nude until I think I could pinch it.'

French, 1869-1954

Provenance

Sotheby's sale, London, April 30, 1969 (Lot 391) Noah Goldowsky, New York Mr. Joseph P. Shure, Chicago Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago Private collection, New York (acquired from the above December 1988)

Photo-certificate of authenticity signed and dated by Madame Duthuit on May 12, 1969 in Paris.

Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of color and his fluid, brilliant and original draftsmanship. As a draftsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but principally as a painter, Matisse is one of the best-known artists of the 20th century. Although he was initially labeled as a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s, he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of color and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.

Around 1904 he met Pablo Picasso, who was 12 years younger than him.[4] The two became life-long friends as well as rivals and are often compared; one key difference between them is that Matisse drew and painted from nature, while Picasso was much more inclined to work from imagination. The subjects painted most frequently by both artists were women and still lifes.

The first painting of Matisse acquired by a public collection was Still Life with Geraniums (1910), exhibited in the Pinakothek der Moderne.[14] Today, a Matisse painting can fetch as much as US $17 million. In 2002, a Matisse sculpture, Reclining Nude I (Dawn), sold for US $9.2 million, a record for a sculpture by the artist.

The Plum Blossoms a 1948 painting by Henri Matisse, was purchased on September 8, 2005, for the Museum of Modern Art by Henry Kravis and the new president of the museum, Marie-Josée Drouin. Estimated price was US $25 million. Previously, it had not been seen by the public since 1970.

Matisse’s daughter Marguerite often aided Matisse scholars with insights about his working methods and his works. She died in 1982 while compiling a catalog of her father's work.

Matisse’s son, Pierre Matisse, (1900-1989) opened an important modern art gallery in New York City during the 1930s. The Pierre Matisse Gallery which was active from 1931 until 1989 represented and exhibited many European artists and a few Americans and Canadians in New York often for the first time. He exhibited Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Dubuffet, André Derain, Yves Tanguy, Le Corbusier, Paul Delvaux, Wifredo Lam, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Balthus, Leonora Carrington, Zao Wou Ki, Sam Francis, sculptors Theodore Roszak, Raymond Mason and Reg Butler, and several other important artists, including the work of Henri Matisse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matisse