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Pierre-Auguste Renoir
French, 1841–1919
Onions
1881
Renoir painted this casual arrangement of onions and garlic piled on crumpled cloth during a visit to Naples in 1881. Clear light and fluid brushstrokes define the onions’ round, solid forms and capture the shiny, papery quality of their skins. Sterling Clark often stated that this was his favorite of the many paintings by Renoir in his collection.

Image Caption

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Onions, 1881, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.588
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
15 3/8 x 23 7/8 in. (39.1 x 60.6 cm) Frame: 25 x 35 1/4 x 2 7/8 in. (63.5 x 89.5 x 7.3 cm)
Object Number
1955.588
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
On View

Select Bibliography

. New York, New York. New York: Random House. n.d.. . Vincent van Gogh à Paris. Musée d'Orsay, Feb. 2-May 15, 1988. London: Hayward Gallery (Arts Council of Great Britain).. Renoir. Jan. 30-April 21, 1985; Grand Palais, Paris, May 14-Sept. 2, 1985; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Oct. 9, 1985-Jan. 5, 1986. Catalogue by John House. . Vincent van Gogh à Paris. Musée d'Orsay, Feb. 2-May 15, 1988. Julius Meier-Graefe.. Renoir.. Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Biermann.. 1929.. New York: Durand-Ruel.. The Four Great Impressionists: Cézanne, Degas, Renoir, Manet, March 27-April 13, 1940. Cat. by Alfred Frankfurter. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.. Exhibit Six: Impressionist Paintings.. Opened Sept. 18, 1956.. S. Lane Faison, Jr.. Guide to Art Museums of New England.. Hew York: Harcourt Brace.. 1958.. Larry Koller.. The Fireside Book of Guns.. New York: Simon & Schuster.. 1959.. James Beard.. Treasury of Outdoor Cooking.. New York: Ridge Press.. 1960.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1963. Wildenstein & Company. An Exhibition of Treasures from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Paintings, drawings & rare silver, for the benefit of the Committee to Rescue Italian Art, inc. (CRIA). Exhibition catalogue. New York: Wildenstein & Company, 1967. Barbara Ehrlich White.. "Renoir's Trip to Italy.". Art Bulletin, 51:4.. (Dec. 1969).:pp. 333-351.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Elda Fezzi.. L'opera complete di Renoir, nel periodo impressionista 1869-1883.. Milan: Rizzoli.. 1972.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Callen, Anthea. Renoir. London: Oresko Books. 1978. Brooks, John H. Highlights: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1981. Faison, S. Lane, Jr. The Art Museums of New England: Massachusetts. Vol. 2. Revised edition of Faison, Guide to the Art Museums of New England, 1958. Godine Guide 3. Boston: David R. Godine, 1982. White, Barbara Ehrlich. Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters. New York: Abrams, 1984. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Sophie Monneret.. Renoir.. Paris: Editions Chêne.. 1989.. John Updike.. Just Looking: Essays on Art.. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.. 1989.. Patrick Bade.. Renoir. The Masterworks.. London: Studio Editions.. 1989.. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Kern, Steven, et al. The Clark: Selections from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996. Kern, Steven, et al. A Passion for Renoir: Sterling and Francine Clark Collect, 19161951. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1996 Ivinski, Patricia R. "Robert Sterling Clark as a Collector of Renoir." The Magazine Antiques 62, no. 4 (October 1997): 532–35. John Updike.. Just Looking: Essays on Art (paperback edition).. Boston: MFA Publications.. 2001.. Bridgestone Museum of Art. Renoir: From Outsider to Old Master 1870-1892. Exhibition catalogue. Nagoya: The Chunichi Shimbun, 2001. Jeffrey E. Thompson. At Home with the Impressionists: Masterpieces of French Still-Life Painting. New York: Universe Publishing. 2001. Rathbone, Eliza E., and George T.M. Shackelford. Impressionist Still Life. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with The Phillips Collection, 2001. Néret, Gilles. Renoir: Painter of Happiness 18411919. Cologne: Taschen GmbH, 2001. Benjamin, Roger. Renoir and Algeria. February 16-May 11, 2003; Dallas Museum of Art, June 8-August 31, 2003; Institut du Monde Arabe, October 6, 2003-January 18, 2004. Yale University Press and Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. 2003. Auction Catalogue. Impressionist and Modern Art: Evening Sale. London: Christie's. 02/07/2005. Conforti, Michael, et al. The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven: distributed by Yale University Press, 2006. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.

Provenance

The artist, sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, 22 May 1882; possibly Madeleine and Charles Haviland, Limoges; Dr. Jacques Soubies, sold to Durand-Ruel, 29 Dec. 1921; [Durand-Ruel, Paris, sold to Clark, 6 Apr. 1922]; Robert Sterling Clark (1922–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.