Provenance
Jean Dollfus [1823-1911], Paris, possibly by 1876 but no later than 1892;[1] (his sale, Paris, 2 March 1912, no. 57, as _Le liseur, portrait de Sisley_); (Paul Rosenberg, Paris). Pierre Decourcelle [1856-1926], Paris; (his sale, Paris, 16 June 1926, no. 63); (Durand-Ruel, New York and Paris); sold 31 December 1928 to Arthur Sachs [1880-1975], New York;[2] sold 1960 through (Bernheim-Jeune, Paris) to Mr. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia;[3] gift 1985 to NGA.
[1] The NGA work is possibly the painting (one of two by Renoir of Monet owned by Dollfus) that Dollfus lent to the 1876 impressionist exhibition. The painting was also lent by Dollfus to the 1892 Renoir exhibition at Durand-Ruel, no. 62, under the title _Le Liseur_.
[2] The sale date is per François Daulte, _Auguste Renoir, catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint. Vol.I: Figures 1860-1890_, Lausanne, 1971: no. 87.
[3] According to Paul Mellon records in NGA curatorial files.
Accession Number
1985.64.35
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 65 x 50 cm (25 9/16 x 19 11/16 in.) | framed: 85.1 x 70.5 x 9.2 cm (33 1/2 x 27 3/4 x 3 5/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Claude Monet, painted in 1872, is Renoir portrait of his closest friend and colleague at the beginning of the most productive period of their friendship. Monet is shown in three-quarter view, his beard and hair rendered in rapid, confident strokes, his expression alert and intelligent, his eyes - which would transform the history of painting - turned toward the viewer.
Renoir and Monet met as students in the studio of Charles Gleyre in 1862 and became the closest of friends and the most productive of artistic colleagues. Between 1869 and 1874, they painted side by side at La Grenouillere, Argenteuil, and elsewhere, developing the broken brushwork and light palette that would become Impressionism. This portrait of Monet, painted during the period of their closest collaboration, is Renoir tribute to the painter who influenced him more than any other.
The painting most revealing feature is its brushwork. Renoir paints Monet face with the same freedom and spontaneity that Monet applied to a landscape - each stroke a notation of light and color rather than a description of form. The result is not a conventional portrait but an Impressionist portrait: a painting that treats a human face as an optical phenomenon, no different in principle from the reflection on water or the shadow on a wall.
Cultural Impact
Renoir portrait of Monet is the most vivid document of the friendship that created Impressionism and influenced every subsequent account of the movement origins. Its Impressionist treatment of the human face demonstrated that the movement principles applied to portraiture as naturally as to landscape.
Why It Matters
This painting captures the moment when two painters, looking at each other, see the same thing: a world of light and color that no previous art had represented. Renoir Monet is both a person and a proof - evidence that the Impressionist eye, turned on a friend, finds the same beauty it finds in a garden or a river.
