Provenance
George Viau, Paris; (his sale, Durand-Ruel, Paris, 4 March 1907, no. 55, as “Au Jardin”); (Bernheim-Jeune);[1] (Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York); (Sam Salz).[2] (Galerie Barbazanges, Paris); (sold 30 June 1923 to M. Knoedler & Co., Paris).[3] (Howard Young Galleries, New York); Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn, née Annie Swan [1856-1932], Chicago, by 1929;[4] by bequest 1932 to The Art Institute of Chicago, until 1947;[5] (Carroll Carstairs, New York); sold 1 December 1947 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York;[6] bequest 1970 to NGA.
[1] Maximilien Lecordier kindly provided the information of Bernheim-Jeune’s purchase at the Durand-Ruel sale, as per documentation in the Archives de Paris, D48E3 90 (see e-mail of 17 February 2025 in NGA curatorial files.
[2] Per François Daulte; see also Guy-Patrice and Michel Dauberville, _Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles_, 5 vols., Paris, 2007, vol I, no. 92. Salz had worked out of Cologne and Paris before moving to New York in 1938; when he would have had the painting is unclear.
[3] Knoedler painting stock book no. 7, p.53, row 37, stock no. 15648. According to a note in the stock book, Knoedler sold the painting in Paris in 1923.
[4] Date according to the Dauberville catalogue raisonné. The painting was lent to _Exhibition of the Mrs. L.L. Coburn Collection Modern Paintings and Water Colors_, at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1932 (no. 30).
[5] Letter to David Rust, from the Art Institute of Chicago, dated 12 January 1977, now in NGA curatorial files.
[6] Date and source of Mrs. Bruce's acquisition according to her papers, now in NGA curatorial files.
Accession Number
1970.17.61
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 54.3 x 65.2 cm (21 3/8 x 25 11/16 in.) | framed: 78.1 x 88.9 x 7.6 cm (30 3/4 x 35 x 3 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Picking Flowers, painted in 1875, depicts two women in a sunlit garden, one bending to pick flowers while the other waits nearby. The painting belongs to Renoir most productive Impressionist period, when his subject matter was drawn entirely from the leisure and domestic activities of the Parisian middle class.
The painting most distinctive quality is its treatment of light. The garden dapples with sunlight and shade, creating a pattern of light and dark across the women dresses and the grass that is the Impressionist equivalent of musical variation. Renoir captures the specific quality of afternoon light in a French garden - warm, golden, and subtly shifting - with an accuracy that makes the viewer feel the warmth on their skin.
The composition is characteristic of Renoir most relaxed manner. The two women are not posed but caught in a natural moment of activity and rest, their postures suggesting a casual intimacy that Renoir renders with unmatched tenderness. The flowers provide splashes of bright color that punctuate the green and blue landscape.
Cultural Impact
Renoir garden paintings established the suburban garden as a major Impressionist subject and influenced every subsequent painter who depicted the beauty of cultivated nature. His vision of the garden as a space of both leisure and labor created a tradition of garden painting that extends through Monet to the present.
Why It Matters
Picking Flowers captures Renoir most generous quality: the conviction that beauty is everywhere, and that the painter job is simply to pay attention. The women picking flowers in their sunlit garden are engaged in the same activity as Renoir himself - picking beauty from the world and arranging it for delight.
