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Pierre-Auguste Renoir
French, 1841–1919
Marie-Thérèse Durand-Ruel Sewing
1882
Marie-Thérèse Durand-Ruel was the eldest daughter of the influential art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who commissioned Renoir to paint each of his five children. She is shown engrossed in needlework, in the garden of her family's Normandy home. The delicate modulations of color and tone in the painting of her face and hands provide a striking contrast to the vigorous, sketchy brushwork of her surroundings.

Image Caption

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Marie-Thérèse Durand-Ruel Sewing, 1882, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.613
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
25 9/16 x 21 1/4 in. (64.9 x 54 cm) Frame: 35 1/2 x 31 7/16 in. (90.2 x 79.9 cm)
Object Number
1955.613
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
On View

Select Bibliography

Paris: Galerie Durand-Ruel.. P. A. Renoir.. April 1-25 1883.. Paris; Galeries Durand-Ruel.. Exposition de Tableaux de Monet, Pissarro, Renoir et Sisley.. April 1899.. Durand-Ruel. A Selection from the Pictures by Boudin, Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, and Sisley. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Durand-Ruel, 1905. Morrison, Henry. "Auguste Renoir, Impressionist." Brush and Pencil 17, no. 5 (May 1906): 191–213. Paris: Galeries Durand-Ruel.. Portraits par Renoir.. June 5-20, 1912.. Paris: Galerie Durand-Ruel.. Exposition Renoir.. Nov. 29-Dec. 18, 1920.. Vollard, Ambroise. Renoir, An Intimate Record. New York: A. A. Knopf. 1925; 1934. Alexandre, Arsène. "Portraits et figures de femmes, Ingres à Picasso," La Renaissance. (July 1928). Paris: La Renaissance. Portraits et figures de femmes, Ingres à Picasso.. June 1-30, 1928. Michel Florisoone.. Renoir.. Paris.. 1937.. 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.. New York: Duveen Galleries.. Renoir Centennial Loan Exhibition.. Nov. 8-Dec. 6, 1941.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.. Exhibit Six: Impressionist Paintings.. Opened Sept. 18, 1956.. de Kooning, Elaine. "Renoir: as if by Magic." Art News 55 (Oct. 1956) :pp. 43-45, 66-67. 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. Wildenstein & Co. 100 Years of ImpressionismA Tribute to Durand-Ruel. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Wildenstein & Co., 1970. François Daulte.. Auguste Renoir, Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint.. Paris: Durand-Ruel.. 1971.. 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. Maurer, Naomi E. in Toulouse-Lautrec: Paintings. (Exh.cat.). Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago.. 1979. Stuckey, Charles F. Toulouse-Lautrec: Painting. Exh. cat.. Oct. 6-Dec. 2, 1979.. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago.. 1979. Kramer, Hilton. "Art: Clark Institute Marks Silver Jubliee." New York Times, June11, 1980. Marian McKenzie, ed.. Thimble Memories, A Collection. Poems, Paintings and Photographs.. Ann Arbor (MI): Braun-Brumfield.. 1981.. Mukherjee, Sushil. "Treasure of the Clark Museum." Berkshire Magazine (Winter 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. Durden-Smith, Jo and Diane Desimone. "Art Town U.S.A." Connoisseur 216 (July 1984). Sophie Monneret.. Renoir.. Paris: Editions Chêne.. 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. 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.. Tamar Garb.. Bodies of Modernity: Figure and Flesh in Fin-de-Siècle France.. London: Thames and Hudson.. 1998.. . "The Summer of 'Summer'". 1999. Baltimore Museum of Art. Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections. Oct. 10, 1999-Jan. 30, 2000; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 15-May 7, 2000; Cleveland Museum of Art, May 28-July 30, 2000.(Cat. by Sona Johnston.). Baltimore Museum of Art and Rizzoli International Publications.. 1999.. Néret, Gilles. Renoir: Painter of Happiness 18411919. Cologne: Taschen GmbH, 2001. High Museum of Art, Atlanta. A Passion for Renoir: Five Great Paintings from the Clark Art Institute. Jan. 10-Mar. 3, 2002. Dumas, Ann and John Collins. Renoir's Women. The Columbus Museum of Art, September 23, 2005- January 15, 2006. London and New York: Merrell. 2005. Soussloff, Catherine M. The Subject in Art: Portaiture and the Birth of the Modern. Durham and London: Duke University Press. 2006. Sirna, Gail Carolyn. In Praise of the Needlewoman: Embroiderers, Knitters, Lacemakers, and Weavers in Art. London; New York: Merrell. 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

Paul Durand-Ruel, Paris, father of the sitter (from 1882–possibly until d. 1922); Mrs. Félix André Aude (Marie-Thérèse Durand-Ruel), Paris (by 1925); [Knoedler, New York, sold to Clark, 23 July 1935]; Robert Sterling Clark (1935–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955