Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919) - L’Enfant, Jean Renoir, à la Chaise (L'Enfant au Biscuit)

Pastel on paper
Sheet size: 23 3/8 x 17 7/8 in. (59.4 x 45.4cm)
Executed circa 1895

Provenance

The Artist.
By descent from the above.
Jean Renoir, Paris (the Artist's son).
By descent from the above.
Dido Freire Renoir, Beverly Hills, California.
Christie's, New York, sale of November 15, 1990, lot 20. 
Christie's, New York, sale of May 13, 1999, lot 313. 
Christie's, London, sale of February 8, 2006, lot 117.
Private Collection, Beverly Hills, California.

Exhibition

“Aquarelles, Pastels et Dessins de Renoir,” Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1921, no. 46.
“Renoir e la Luce dell'impressionismo,” Palazzo del Normanni, Palermo, Sicily, June 6-July 31, 2002; and Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Milano, September 19-November 17, 2002.
Masters of the West, Portakal Culture House, Istanbul, 2004-2005.
Renoir | Renoir, The Bunkamura Museum of Art (curated by the Musée d'Orsay), Tokyo, Japan, February 2, 2008-May 6, 2008; and The National Museum of Modern Art (also curated by the Musée d'Orsay), Kyoto, Japan, May 20-July 21, 2008.

Literature

Maithe Valles-Bled, Renoir e la Luce dell'Impressionismo, Mazzotta, Milan, 2002 (illustrated).
Renoir | Renoir, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2008, p. 55 (illustrated).

Lot Essay

The authenticity this work has been confirmed by the Wildenstein Institute.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir captured the fleeting moments of everyday life with vibrant light and color. While oil remained his primary medium, his exploration of pastels yielded some of his most important and intimate works, particularly those that explored the charm and innocence of childhood.

One such work is L’Enfant, Jean Renoir, à la Chaise (L’Enfant au Biscuit), a circa 1895 pastel portrait of Renoir's young son. Jean, barely two years old, sits contently in a highchair, his chubby hand clutching a partially eaten biscuit. The boy's gaze is averted, his attention seemingly drawn by something beyond the picture plane. Renoir accords the child's skin a soft, almost luminous quality, highlighting the delicate contours of his face and the rosy flush of his cheeks. White highlights for the collar and the crumbs of the biscuit add a subtle textural contrast. Warm light bathes the tableau in an aura of domestic tranquility—a recurring theme in Renoir's late compositions.

The artist’s embrace of pastels dates to the 1880s and coincides with a shift in his style towards a more restrained, intimate portrayal of his subjects. Pastels offered a number of advantages to this end: unlike oils, which required careful preparation and drying time, pastels were more immediate, allowing for greater spontaneity. Moreover, their dry texture facilitated softer blending and a more nuanced interplay of light and shadow. This surely resonated with Renoir's desire to capture the fleeting expressions and gentle forms of (his) children.

The informality of the pose, the child's absorbed expression, and the play of light on his features all contribute to a sense of candid intimacy. Renoir’s choice of medium reinforces this effect, its softness mirroring the delicate nature of childhood. His use of color is also noteworthy. He eschews the vibrant palette of his earlier works, opting instead for a muted range of white, pink, yellow, and chestnut. This creates a sense of harmony and warmth, ideally suited to the subject at hand. The green-and-charcoal-colored background offers a counterpoint to the child's ruddy complexion.

L’Enfant, Jean Renoir, à la Chaise (L’Enfant au Biscuit), arguably one of Renoir’s most significant pastels, served as the prototype for a series of color and black-and-white lithographs created between 1898-1899. Whether pastel or print, the image is a revealing case study in how Renoir, through a manipulation of form, color, and texture, breathed life into his subjects, particularly the most cherished ones–his children.