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.
| 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 |
Image Caption
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Self-Portrait, 1899, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.611
Select Bibliography
London: Leicester Galleries.. Fifty Years of Portraits, 1885-1935.. May-June 1935..
New York: Durand-Ruel Galleries.. Loan Exhibition of Portraits by Renoir.. March 29-April 15, 1939..
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.. Exhibit Six: Impressionist Paintings.. Opened Sept. 18, 1956..
Heckscher Museum, Huntington, N.Y. As We See Ourselves: Artists' Self-Portraits. June 22 - Aug. 5, 1979.
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.
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..
Rosenblum, Robert, Maryanne Stevens, and Ann Dumas. 1900: Art at the Crossroads. Exhibition catalogue. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2000.
. 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):
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..
Charles Terrasse.. Cinquante portraits de Renoir.. Paris: Librairie Floury.. 1941..
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.
François Fosca.. Renoir: L'homme et son oeuvre.. Paris: Ed. Aimery Somogy.. 1961..
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..
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.
Jean Renoir.. Pierre Auguste Renoir, mon père.. Paris: Gallimard.. (1962, 1981) 1994..
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..
Michael F. Marmor and James G. Ravin.. The Eye of the Artist.. Philadelphia: Mosby-Year Book, Inc.. 1997..
Wayne Booth.. The Art of Growing Older, paperback ed.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.. 1996..
Néret, Gilles. Renoir: Painter of Happiness 18411919. Cologne: Taschen GmbH, 2001.
Michel Florisoone, tr. George Frederic Lees.. Renoir.. London: Commodore Press.. 1942..
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.
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.
EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY
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.
