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Pierre-Auguste Renoir
French, 1841–1919
Self-Portrait
1899
Renoir presents himself in this self-portrait as a mature and confident man. He was in his late fifties and well-established as an artist; the flowered wallpaper and his bourgeois clothes allude to a comfortable living. His health, on other hand, was poor, and the intensity of his gaze suggests an incisive investigation of the features of his face in a mirror. Renoir never exhibited this painting, and it remained in his studio until his death twenty years later.
Image Caption
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Self-Portrait, 1899, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.611
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
16 5/16 x 13 1/4 in. (41.4 x 33.7 cm)
Frame: 22 3/4 x 19 3/8 in. (57.8 x 49.2 cm)
Object Number
1955.611
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
On View
Select Bibliography
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. . L'Atelier de Renoir, 2 vols.. Paris.. 1931.. George Besson.. Renoir.. Paris.. 1932.. "Shorter Notices: Fifty Years of Portraits." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 67, no. 388 (July 1935): London: Leicester Galleries.. Fifty Years of Portraits, 1885-1935.. May-June 1935.. Michel Florisoone.. Renoir.. Paris.. 1937.. Lionello Venturi.. Les archives de l'impressionnisme.. Paris, New York: Durand-Ruel.. 1939.. Frankfurter, Alfred M. "The Portraiture of Renoir: An Important Exhibition Concentrating on His Portraits". The Art News, 37. March 25, 1939.. New York: Durand-Ruel Galleries.. Loan Exhibition of Portraits by Renoir.. March 29-April 15, 1939.. Charles Terrasse.. Cinquante portraits de Renoir.. Paris: Librairie Floury.. 1941.. Michel Florisoone, tr. George Frederic Lees.. Renoir.. London: Commodore Press.. 1942.. Marcel Zahar.. Renoir.. Paris.. 1948.. Milton S. Fox.. Pierre Auguste Renoir. The Library of Great Painters, Portfolio edition.. New York: Abrams.. [1951].. Maurice Catinat.. Les bords de la Seine avec Renoir et Maupassant.. Chatou: Ed. S.O.S.P.. 1952.. Milton S. Fox.. Renoir.. New York: Pocket Books.. 1953.. de Kooning, Elaine. "Renoir: as if by Magic." Art News 55 (Oct. 1956) :pp. 43-45, 66-67. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.. Exhibit Six: Impressionist Paintings.. Opened Sept. 18, 1956.. François Fosca.. Renoir: L'homme et son oeuvre.. Paris: Ed. Aimery Somogy.. 1961.. Jean Renoir.. Pierre Auguste Renoir, mon père.. Paris: Gallimard.. (1962, 1981) 1994.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1963. Daulte, François . "Renoir: Son Oeuvre Regardé sous l'Angle d'un Album de Famille." Connaissance des Arts, no. 153 (Nov. 1964). Clare Vincent.. "In Search of a Likeness: Some European Portrait Sculpture.. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin., vol. xxiv, no. 8.. (April 1966).. Robert Reiff.. Renoir.. McGraw-Hill.. 1968.. Pierre Cabanne.. Renoir.. Paris: Réalités-Hachette.. 1970.. 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. 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. Julie Manet.. Journal (1893-1899).. Paris: C. Klincksieck.. 1979.. Heckscher Museum, Huntington, N.Y. As We See Ourselves: Artists' Self-Portraits. June 22 - Aug. 5, 1979. 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. Axel Hecht.. "Renoir: Die Last mit der Schönheit.". Art, das Kunstmagazine, 3.. (March 1985).. Denys Sutton.. "Renoir's Kingdom.". Apollo, 121.. (April 1985).. Pascal Bonafoux.. The Impressionists: Portraits and Confidences.. New York: Rizzoli.. 1986.. Horst Keller.. Auguste Renoir.. Munich: Bruckmann.. 1987.. Sean Kelly and Edward Lucie-Smith.. The Self Portrait: A Modern View.. London: Sarema Press.. 1987.. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Margaret F. Farr.. Impressionist Portraiture: A Study in Context and Meaning. Ph.D. diss. on microfilm.. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.. 1993.. Distel, Anne. Renoir: "Il faut embellir". Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux & Découvertes Gallimard. 1993. Art Exhibitions Australia.. Renoir: Master Impressionist. Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, July 30-Sept. 11, 1994; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Sept. 19-Oct. 30, 1994; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Nov, 6, 1994-Jan. 15, 1995. Cat. by John House. David Frankel.. Masterpieces: The Best Loved Paintings from America's Museums.. New York.. 1995.. Wayne Booth.. The Art of Growing Older, paperback ed.. Chicago: University of Chicago 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 Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age. June 27-Sept. 14, 1997; Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 17, 1997-Jan. 4, 1998; Kimbell Art Museum, Feb. 8-April 26, 1998. (Exh. cat. by Colin Bailey et al.). National Gallery of Canada and Yale University Press, London.. Michael F. Marmor and James G. Ravin.. The Eye of the Artist.. Philadelphia: Mosby-Year Book, Inc.. 1997.. Rosenblum, Robert, Maryanne Stevens, and Ann Dumas. 1900: Art at the Crossroads. Exhibition catalogue. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2000. Néret, Gilles. Renoir: Painter of Happiness 18411919. Cologne: Taschen GmbH, 2001. 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
Pierre Renoir, Paris, the artist’s son, by descent (1919–35, consigned to Durand-Ruel, Paris);¹ [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1935–36, transferred to New York]; [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1936–37, sold to Clark, 10 Apr. 1937]; Robert Sterling Clark (1937–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.
1. Information in the Clark’s curatorial file, “from Mr. May, Institute, Aug. 1959,” gives the provenance as “Charles Farrel, Paris (until 1914; sold to May); George May (1914–1926; sold to Durand-Ruel).” This cannot be verified, and, given the evidence that it was in Renoir’s studio (see Bernheim-Jeune, L’Atelier de Renoir, 1931, vol. 1, pl. 59, no. 182) and owned by Pierre Renoir in 1935, it is probably incorrect.