Sale 6342
| Philadelphia
| Philadelphia
Estimate$150,000 – $250,000
To request further details about this lot, please email [email protected]
The lot will be accompanied by a copy of a letter from the Wildenstein Institute Paris dated 2002, announcing it will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work prepared by François Daulte under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein.
Provenance:
Collection of Ambroise Vollard, Paris, France.
Sotheby's, London, sale of July 2, 1970, lot 22.
Kunsthaus Bühler, Stuttgart, Germany.
Acquired directly from the above.
Private Collection, Germany, until 2001.
Kunsthaus Bühler, Stuttgart, Germany.
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2002.
Literature:
Ambroise Vollard, Tableaux, Pastels et Dessins de Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paris, 1918, Vol. 2, p. 34.
Guy-Patrice et Michel Dauberville, Renoir: Catalogue Raisonné des Tableaux, Pastels, Dessins, et Aquarelles, 1858-1881, Paris, 2007, Vol. II, p. 472, no. 1439 (illustrated).
Lot Essay:
Renoir’s turn to pastel in the 1880s marked a pivotal moment in his artistic evolution. Unlike oil, which demands preparation and permanence, pastel offered Renoir immediacy and subtlety. Its powdery texture allowed for a soft, vaporous touch—perfectly suited to this delicate rendering of the female nude.
The reclining figure, her back gently turned to the viewer, is bathed in luminous light. Renoir’s feathery strokes lend her skin a pearlescent warmth, dissolving the boundary between figure and background. Body and landscape blend into a unified impressionistic haze. The light, fresh palette evokes nature itself—rosy and radiant, like the blush of the woman’s cheek. Renoir’s brisk, expressive handling of pastel speaks to the sheer pleasure he found in the medium. His strokes seem to pulse with spontaneity and joy.
More than a technical feat, Nu Allongé is a heartfelt homage to the French Rococo masters Renoir so revered—particularly François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Echoing their powdered nudes and pastoral elegance, this work channels their spirit through a modern, impressionist lens. The result is not merely a depiction of the body, but a tribute to the sensuality, grace, and refinement of a bygone golden age.
As Berthe Morisot wrote in her journal in 1886: “Renoir is a draftsman of the first rank... He tells me that the nude is absolutely indispensable as an art form.” This pastel affirms that belief, presenting the nude not as subject, but as essence—an emblem of femininity. This figure is no anatomical study; she is not individualized, but idealized. Anonymous and enigmatic, she exists outside of time, embodying Renoir’s enduring vision of the femme idéale: timeless, serene, and radiant.
