Renoir

by Barbara Ehrlich White

  This illness was only one of the major problems then confronting Renoir. On 19 January 1882, around the time that he and Aline had left Naples for France, the most important French bank, L’Union Générale, failed and the Paris stock market crashed. It caused a depression that lasted for the next four or five years and resulted in financial problems for Renoir’s dealer and for all the artists. Consequently, Renoir was extremely concerned about the sale of his paintings. This worry took shape at the same time that he became seriously ill and when his old Impressionist friends were pressing him to join their new group show, calling themselves Artistes Indépendants. Ten days after Renoir had written to his dealer about his pneumonia, he again wrote to Durand-Ruel, angry since he felt such a group exhibition would hurt his new-found success as a fashionable portrait painter. His two biggest objections were the group’s identifying moniker ‘Independent’ and the inclusion of Gauguin, a highly controversial artist, but he was also strongly opposed since he felt that if he joined the group in March, he would be ineligible to exhibit at the May and June 1882 Salon.

  Renoir knew that he owed his recent success to Mme Charpentier and her Children at the 1879 Salon. Thanks to its critical reception at that Salon, he had become a fashionable portraitist. The last time that Renoir had exhibited with the Impressionists was in 1877. Subsequently, as noted earlier, he had had works accepted to the Salons of 1878–81. There had been no group show in 1878 and because he had been making his mark through the Salons, he had refused to participate in the group shows of 1879–81. By 1882, the idea of leaving the profitable Salons for the controversial group shows was intolerable.

  At the height of his pneumonia, when Renoir’s dealer and Impressionist friends pleaded with him to join the March 1882 group show, Renoir flatly refused. Surely this was not the behaviour of a timid, passive man. He explained to his dealer: ‘I refuse to be included for a minute in a group called the Independents. The main reason is that I am exhibiting at the Salon, and the two do not go together…. I believe that if I exhibit there, it will cause [the value] of my canvases to drop by 50%.’214 A few days later he continued: ‘The public doesn’t like art that seems political and at my age I don’t want to be a revolutionary.’215 Shortly thereafter, in another letter to his dealer, he elaborated: ‘There are barely fifteen connoisseurs in Paris capable of liking a painter without the Salon. There are 80,000 of them who won’t even buy a tiny portrait if a painter doesn’t exhibit at the Salon.’216 Renoir objected so vehemently to being branded a revolutionary or independent because these terms were then linked in the minds of French people with the bloody 1871 Paris Commune. At the height of the critics’ mockery of his art, it was this connection to politics and violence that caused much of his art to be deemed almost worthless. Whether or not Renoir’s art at the time was revolutionary is an open question. His work contained themes of modern life, light, bright colours, a rainbow palette and a general freedom, randomness and mobility. Even so, he had just come back from the study of classical works and was beginning to incorporate conservative elements that linked his art with the great art of the past.

  At Durand-Ruel’s insistence, Renoir allowed him to send works that the dealer owned to the seventh group show as long as it was clearly specified that it was Durand-Ruel and not Renoir who was exhibiting. Durand-Ruel agreed and sent twenty-five Renoir paintings including Luncheon of the Boating Party. In this way, three months later, Renoir felt no conflict about exhibiting at the Salon of May and June 1882. Later, he apologized to Durand-Ruel for the angry tone of his letters, writing: ‘I wrote to you at the worst part of my illness. I am not going to say that I was acting rationally.’217

  That illness, severe pneumonia, was at its peak in late February and early March, when Renoir informed Bérard that he had been warned against cold weather. ‘The doctor really doesn’t want me to return to Paris…. I prefer to go to Algiers for about two weeks…. I’ll work a little. So, my dear friend, I must ask you for a rushed favour. I need five hundred francs in Marseilles on Saturday before 3 o’clock because I’m taking the boat at 5 o’clock for Algiers and I haven’t a dime left…. It is so frightening to stay flat on one’s back for about two months. God, an illness is a real shame. Outdoors, I’m dizzy. I have lost weight, it’s insane and I look like a straw man. I tried to paint a little in my room; my head started spinning after five minutes. It’s idiotic.’218

  Seeking warmer weather, on 5 March, about a month into the illness, Renoir and Aline travelled by boat from Marseilles to Algiers. Renoir planned to remain only a fortnight but spent about six weeks, renting an apartment at 30 rue de la Marine, close to the port and the Grand Mosque and Moorish arcades. While he recuperated and tried to paint, Aline looked after him and their temporary home. From Algiers, Renoir complained to Bérard: ‘I have a constant fever that I cannot get rid of…. I can’t get down to work. I am taking pills which are supposed to rid me of this nuisance in three days. We’ll see…. I think I will write you soon that I’m feeling better. But it is unbearable; when something gets better, another starts again…. It’s high time that the sickness ends because, with my ailments, I will become unbearable. I hope that I will write you about something completely different in my next letter.’219 He described his illness and slow recovery to his dealer: ‘At this time, I’m covered with boils which are making me suffer horribly and I am more uncomfortable than ever, but it isn’t serious and in a few days, I hope to be rid of this annoyance…. I’m improving very slowly; from time to time I still have some little fevers that remind me I’m still not completely healthy.’220

  Renoir’s Algiers doctor advised him to remain in this warm climate until he fully recovered. By mid-March, things were improving but, under the doctor’s orders, he stayed until early May. As his health improved, he wrote to Bérard on 14 March: ‘I saw the doctor this morning; he took me off all medicines. I am doing very well, except for my legs, which are not. The doctor said I have to stay in Algiers another month. Little by little I have to stop wearing flannel underwear. He says that it blocks the pores of the skin…. I no longer smoke, but I eat enough for four people.’221 And in April, ‘My fever passed as if by a magic spell and I’m feeling marvellous. Was I cured by my pills or by the sirocco [strong desert wind]?’222 Even after most symptoms were gone, he continued to have problems, informing Bérard that summer that he was ‘still shivering, even in the middle of the day’.223

  Despite the fact that he was never completely well during this second Algiers trip, Renoir painted four landscapes – two of holy places, for both of which he made preparatory pencil sketches in his sketchbook: Staircase of the Mosque of Sidi Abd-er-Rahman and Mosque of Sidi Abd-er-Rahman. He also painted Garden in Mustapha, Algiers and Memory of Algiers, on which he inscribed ‘souvenir of Algiers’.224

  During this second trip to Algiers, Renoir was able to paint several figures, all of whom dressed in colourful costumes. He explained to his dealer: ‘Here I am almost settled in Algiers and talking with Arabs in order to find models, which is quite difficult… But this time, I hope to bring you some figure painting, which I wasn’t able to do during my last trip. I saw some incredibly picturesque children. Will I get them to model? I’ll do all I can for that. I also saw some attractive women, but I’ll tell you later if I succeed. I still need a few more days before I get to work. I’m taking this time to search, for as soon as I am settled, I want to do as many figure paintings as possible and, if possible, to bring you a few somewhat unusual things.’225 Because many young Muslim women would have found modelling unseemly, he was probably limited in his choice of models to old women, children and non-Muslims. He made two versions of Old Arab Woman and several paintings of Algerian children, including Child with Orange, Little Algerian Girl and Ali, the Young Arab Boy, and oil sketches of Algerian Types.226 Besides Algerian children, he also painted a girl from France, as he explained to Bérard: ‘I have lovely people to paint, namely, a pretty little ten-year-old girl, a Parisian. We bo
ught her an outfit. She looks darling in it’.227 Other images of probably non-Muslim figures include a drawing in his sketchbook and then the corresponding painting, Young Algerian Girl, and two paintings of Seated Algerian Woman.228

  While Renoir was still in Algiers, Bérard, following the painter’s instructions, submitted two of Renoir’s works to the Salon. On 23 April 1882, about a week before Renoir returned to Paris, Bérard reported that ‘your portrait of the little Grimprel girl [Mlle Yvonne Grimprel] has been accepted to the Salon… Your bather was refused!!!’ This was the Blonde Bather of 1881 for which Aline had posed at the bay of Naples. Even though Bérard understood that Renoir would be disappointed, he sweetened the news, exclaiming: ‘I’m completely thrilled and more and more convinced of your merit and of the merit of your friends…. Success is coming…. All in all, things are going well. It is time for you to succeed; we can’t let you be forgotten.’ Bérard, his wife and four children, accustomed to Renoir’s annual presence in their home, missed him greatly. In the same letter, Bérard wrote: ‘Certainly we are counting on you, and we insist that you come here to spend time with us…. You can’t imagine how impatient we all are here at rue Pigalle [their Paris address] to see you again. Write and tell me the exact date you will come back.’229

  Renoir returned to Paris shortly after sending this letter. On his arrival, he turned his thoughts to incorporating the lessons learned abroad into his customary portraits and scenes of daily life. From L’Estaque, before he became ill, he had written to Mme Charpentier: ‘[It] gives me great pleasure [that] you are still thinking about the pastel of your daughter. I should have hurried back to Paris but I didn’t do it because I am learning a lot and the longer I take, the better the portrait will be…. I have perpetual sunshine and I can erase and start over as much as I want. This is the only way to learn, and in Paris we are forced to be content with little…. Raphael who didn’t work outside had nonetheless studied the sun since his frescoes are filled with it. Thus, by seeing what is outside I ended up only seeing the larger harmonies without being preoccupied by the little details that dimmed the sunlight instead of lighting it up. I hope to return to Paris to make something that will be the result of these general lessons, and give you the benefit.’230

  Indeed, on his return to Paris, Renoir incorporated in some of his works the ‘grandeur and simplicity’ he had gone seeking without diminishing his characteristic luminosity or vibrant colour. These new figure paintings call to mind Cézanne, Raphael and certain Pompeian frescoes in their distinct contours, clear delineation of the features, tight focus and intensity. The most striking portraits in his new style include those commissioned by Durand-Ruel soon after Renoir’s return to Paris. Durand-Ruel, a widower, wanted paintings of his five children, who ranged in age from twelve to twenty. Before he got this commission, Renoir had been extremely worried about his relationship with his dealer. After the conflict surrounding the 1882 group show, Renoir had written to Bérard that he was worried about what would happen ‘if Durand drops me [as a client].... I will have lots of things to tell you: my struggles with Durand-Ruel to not be part of the Exhibition of Independents. I had to give in a little. That is to say that I couldn’t refuse to allow him to exhibit my canvases that belong to him.’231 By late June, Durand-Ruel had made it clear that there were no hard feelings. Renoir wrote to Bérard in relief: ‘Durand-Ruel wants me to do his entire family, and has told me to set aside the whole month of August.’232 The dealer wanted the paintings executed during the family’s summer vacation, which they spent in a rented Dieppe chateau. Renoir ended up doing four portraits of the five children that summer, which in their greater definition of form appear different from Renoir’s earlier figures.233

  Not all the portraits Renoir made on his return were in his new style. During that summer, he had painted a portrait of Mme Marie-Henriette Clapisson, seated in her garden in Neuilly, a suburb of Paris.234 Her husband was a retired lieutenant, stockbroker and collector who had purchased Renoir’s Staircase of the Mosque of Sidi Abd-er-Rahman, 1882, from Durand-Ruel.235 Mme Clapisson’s portrait is in Renoir’s old Realist Impressionist style, and the figure seems to sink into the landscape. She was dissatisfied with this painting, so Renoir promised to go back later in the year and redo her portrait, complaining to Bérard in October 1882: ‘I am not doing well at the moment. I have to start over Madame Clapisson’s portrait. I failed completely. Also, I don’t think that Durand is very happy about his family portraits. Anyhow, all this demands reflection and without exaggerating, I must be careful if I don’t want to lose the public’s esteem.’236 These early attempts at portraiture after his return did not satisfy anyone. He felt constrained by his expectations of what his buyers wanted, and thus he struggled to find a balance between his artistic aspirations and his material needs. Renoir longed to return to his genre paintings where he could experiment in his new style. He also missed life with Aline in Paris. While working for Durand-Ruel in Dieppe, he had written to her: ‘I have nothing to tell you, except that I’ve begun my portraits and that I can’t wait to come back to Paris to work in my studio.’237 In another letter to Aline, he requested: ‘Give everyone my best. Tell them I’ll be back as soon as possible, and that I am not staying in Dieppe for pleasure.’238

  Aline, too, was longing for Renoir’s company. Their six-month trip abroad together had strengthened their relationship. She missed him when he left her in Paris to go to Dieppe. After she had been alone for two weeks, she implored him: ‘Tell me, my poor dear: Are you cold up there in Dieppe? We are freezing here in Paris. Are you working hard? Will your portraits be finished soon? A month seems so long! Our trip this winter seemed much shorter than the past two weeks without you. Write to me often, and tell me if you are well. All my love, Aline.’239

  Once he was back in Paris, probably in September 1882, Renoir began work on a new set of paintings, a triptych of dancing couples, that draw their emotional power from his own passionate love-life. These three works recall the modern sociability of Dancing at the Moulin de la Galette, 1876 (see page 86) his greatest purely Impressionist painting. Work on the three dancers continued for the next seven months. Although he started his actual work only in September, he may have been thinking about the dancer paintings as early as March, when, from Algiers, he wrote to his dealer: ‘I have ideas for paintings that will cost me a lot of money.’240 The inspiration for the triptych layout came from traditional Christian art, the many large altarpieces in museums and churches that paid tribute to Jesus Christ or to the Virgin Mary. In Renoir’s triptych, he is praising romance in modern Paris through the different social classes. Following the traditional format, the central panel is slightly wider than the side panels.

  For the central canvas, Dance at Bougival (see page 94), Renoir chose a romantic interlude between an informally dressed couple while, behind them, three figures sit chatting at a table at the left and three others stand socializing behind the tree at the right. The dancing pair’s clothing suggests that they are lower class: they wear no gloves and the man appears to be a boatman with a straw hat, a blue collarless shirt and casual shoes.

  In the left panel, Country Dance (1883; see page 95), Renoir painted a middle-class couple dressed more elegantly, yet the woman’s red-orange hat with purple plums is the same that appears in Dance at Bougival. The woman wears mustard-yellow gloves, white earrings and carries a fan. Her partner has a white-collared shirt beneath his formal fitted jacket, and he wears shiny black shoes. The right panel, City Dance (see page 95), represents a high-class couple. She wears a lavish, low-cut formal gown and long white gloves. He also wears white gloves to complement his tuxedo with tails. Renoir decided he needed to study a real upper-class ball before doing this work. He thought of Duret’s friend, the wealthy banker and art collector Henri Cernuschi, who, he learned, was holding a formal dance. Renoir wrote to Duret: ‘Can you get me an invitation for the dance at Cernuschi’s? I would most appreciate it.’241 Having gone to the ball,
he was able confidently to pose his models for City Dance.

  Although Aline was not the model for this high-class woman, as Renoir’s muse, she modelled for the women in Dance at Bougival and Country Dance. Fifteen years later, when the three paintings were exhibited in Paris at Durand-Ruel’s Renoir exhibition in May 1892, Julie Manet recorded in her diary: ‘He told us that in La Danse he had used Mme Renoir and his friend Lauth [Lhôte] (of whom he still speaks with affection).’242 Paul Lhôte, who had modelled in Moulin de la Galette and Luncheon of the Boating Party, posed for the male dancers in all three panels. For the more formal, upper-class City Dance, Renoir chose Puvis de Chavannes’s model, Suzanne Valadon, who began posing for Renoir at this time and would occasionally model for him over the next four years.243

  Renoir worked intensely on the three dance paintings, hoping he would complete them in time to be the centrepiece among more than seventy of his works in an exhibition planned by Durand-Ruel for April 1883. This would be Renoir’s first solo painting show. Even though the Charpentiers had shown his pastel portraits in their offices four years earlier, Renoir had never before presented so many paintings in a major gallery. He was one of four Impressionists, along with Monet, Pissarro and Sisley, chosen by Durand-Ruel for single-artist shows that year. Despite the fact that this was an important exhibition, Renoir did not quite manage to complete his triptych on time. Although he delivered the two side panels to his dealer on 28 March, three days before the show was to open, he took two more weeks to complete Dance at Bougival, which he brought to Durand-Ruel on 16 April.244 Hence the triptych of three dancers could only be seen together at the end of the show.

  This triptych was Renoir’s greatest work in the new Classical Impressionist style. Exhibited at Durand-Ruel’s among many of his earlier works, including Dancing at the Moulin de la Galette, it enabled the public to understand the evolution of his style. In Duret’s preface to the catalogue of this show, he explains: ‘We see him acquiring a more expansive manner of painting, endowing his figures with greater suppleness, surrounding them with more and more air, and bathing them in more and more light.’245 Almost thirty years later, in the first book on Renoir, Julius Meier-Graefe said that the dancers of 1883 were the first instances of a new ‘sculptural solidity’.246 During Renoir’s show, Pissarro, whose exhibition followed Renoir’s, informed his son: ‘Renoir’s show is superb, a great artistic success, of course, because here one can’t count on anything else.’ Yet, as Pissarro pointed out, however great the show, it was extremely unlikely that Renoir would sell any of these works.247