Despite all this, Renoir often acquiesced to whatever Aline wished. As in the past, Aline continued to insist on seaside holidays, which she knew Renoir despised. In the summer of 1895, when Pierre was ten, they rented a little house in Tréboul on the Baie de Douarnenez, Brittany. Renoir complained to Bérard: ‘What bothers me is the obligatory sea bathing at the end of the month…which, in spite of the horror I have of the seashore, I am going to be forced to swallow.’151 Julie was also well aware of Renoir’s displeasure, recording: ‘He was swimming so he could teach Pierre to swim and dive but became more and more uncomfortable in the water, while Mme Renoir, who ran out of breath doing even a few strokes, acted as a buoy.’152 Three years later, in July 1898, Aline demanded another seaside vacation against Renoir’s wishes, wanting to rent a chalet in Berneval near Dieppe. In order to choose a place to stay, Aline planned a day trip there with Renoir, Jean, Julie, Jeannie and Paule. In her diary, Julie wrote: ‘Monsieur Renoir didn’t feel like renting one of the frightful chalets here, but Mme Renoir did; so they rented one.… Renoir said to us as we were leaving: “You are very lucky that you will not return here again.”’153
But it was not only vacations that Aline controlled. She loved living in Essoyes and decided to buy a house there. Although the family was still renting their Montmartre home at rue Girardon, they had accrued enough money to afford to buy a country house. Julie Manet reported in her diary on 29 November 1895: ‘[Renoir] now has to go to his wife’s part of the country to buy a house that he doesn’t want to buy.’154 Nevertheless, Aline convinced Renoir to acquire a rustic house on three floors. It took a year to finalize the purchase, which occurred in September 1896.155 Until this point, Renoir had never owned a home or studio; he had always rented. Even though Renoir had disliked the idea of buying the house, he grew to enjoy working in Essoyes. He often painted the hills covered with vines, the grape-pickers carrying baskets on their back or pushing wheelbarrows, and the women washing clothes in the Ource river. Aline loved Essoyes even more. As Renoir wrote in 1898: ‘My wife is still in her country, which she leaves reluctantly.’156
In Paris, meanwhile, from October 1896, Renoir rented a studio at 64 rue de la Rochefoucauld, in the ninth arrondissement, which Julie Manet described as his ‘superb studio in Rue de la Rochefoucauld’.157 The following April, the family moved off the Montmartre hill down to an apartment on the same street, at number 33. The new apartment had a yearly rent of 2,000 francs, which was well within Renoir’s means, since his credit from his dealer for 1 September 1896 to 31 August 1897 came to 6,680 francs.158 Their apartment was in an elegant corner building, on the top residential floor, reached by climbing five winding flights of stairs. A huge balcony surrounded the apartment. Renoir’s room had a bathroom with a toilet, a washbasin and running cold water. For washing, maids heated cold water in the kitchen and brought it to the bedrooms. Renoir’s room was connected to Aline’s, and a corridor led to the children’s room, an additional bathroom, the kitchen, dining room and living room. Wood or coal burned in fireplaces that heated every room. From 1860 onwards, there were electric lights in the Paris streets, yet gas lamps lit this apartment. All the servants for each family in the building lived on an unheated sixth floor, accessible only via a rear staircase, with five maids’ rooms, a basin with a drain, running cold water and a stand-up toilet.
Throughout these years, Renoir continued to portray Jean, making at least sixty paintings, drawings and etchings from Jean’s birth to age seven. Renoir treasured these works and saved fourteen paintings of Jean alone and four of Jean with Gabrielle in his studios (see page 241). The earliest images portray Jean as a newborn. Later, he appears as a baby with a huge, white, frilly bonnet, sucking a biscuit. In some he sits with Gabrielle at a table on which they play, read or write. Renoir wanted to be able to paint long, silken locks, so he refused to allow Jean’s hair to be cut. As Julie Manet noted in her diary when Jean was two years old: ‘Jean has taken on the look of a little girl.’159 The next year, 1897, she praised his red hair: ‘Jean is sweet with his red hair against the russet trees.’160 Renoir’s adoration for his son shines through in his work of which Julie wrote: ‘The portrait of Jean in a black velvet outfit with a guipure lace collar and a hoop in his hand is hung in the salon. It looks very good and one could almost take it for the portrait of a little prince.’161
Jean was a charming child, upbeat, gregarious and funny. Julie again, in December 1896: ‘The little kid is always excited, witty and very funny. He tried on the model’s hat, played the violin, kidded around. He doesn’t like Mozart, she doesn’t like Mozart.’162 When Jean was four, of a journey to Berneval in July 1898, Julie wrote: ‘At 8 o’clock we were at the Gare St Lazare Station where we found M. and Mme Renoir and Jean, who fidgeted like a little devil for the entire journey and interrogated a person, who had some canaries with her, about her life, what she was going to do in Dieppe, etc’.163 A few days later, Renoir wrote with delight to Jeanne Baudot about her godson: ‘Jean is handsome and quite a handful’, and two years later to her, ‘Jean has had a growth spurt’.164
Much to Renoir’s relief after the trouble with baby Pierre, Jean was healthy, as his father commented to Monet when Jean was six months old: ‘Happily, everything is going well for the moment at my house. Jean is in great health and has gone through the winter without any problem. Let’s hope it continues.’165 He caught the common childhood diseases of chickenpox166 and measles,167 and had one serious case of bronchitis when he was two, in February 1897, as Renoir described: ‘We never stopped having sickness this winter and, now, Jean still has bronchitis. We have been very worried. The fever has stopped increasing. I hope that he will pull through again.’168 But, all in all, Jean was rarely ill and when he was six, Renoir could inform his godmother: ‘Jean is superbly healthy.’169
The month that Jean was born, Pierre began to attend Sainte-Croix de Neuilly boarding school, which he attended for nine years. He loved Sainte-Croix, which specialized in theatre studies and football. Pierre showed an early aptitude for acting, perhaps because he was accustomed to being looked at from modelling for his father. After he started school, he modelled for Renoir much less, both because he was rarely home and because Renoir preferred painting younger children, especially before they had their hair cut. Nonetheless, Pierre appears in a few paintings, the most important of which, Lunch at Berneval (1897–98), shows him as the focal figure in the right foreground, immersed in his homework; in the background Gabrielle sets out breakfast and speaks to a long-haired Jean now wearing trousers.170 A related painting also shows Pierre reading in profile. Renoir also made a few head-and-shoulder portraits of Pierre (a painting and three pastels).171 In July 1895, at the end of Pierre’s first year at school, he won ten prizes, including first prize in grammar and English, second prize in calculus and drawing and a ‘unique prize for wisdom’.172
That summer, the family went on the vacation to Brittany where newly orphaned Julie Manet and her cousins joined the Renoirs for the first time. She was touched that ‘Pierre came to meet us’ off the train.173 Ten-year-old Pierre was six years younger than Julie. During that summer, Julie later recalled, ‘He was a delightful child, and used to trot off behind his father carrying a tiny panel saying, “I’m going to do a small sketch.”’174 That September, she wrote: ‘Jeannie and I went for a very nice walk with M. Renoir and Pierre.’175 A month later, after Julie and Renoir had walked back from Sainte-Croix with Pierre, she wrote: ‘Monsieur Renoir constantly uses the phrase “Little Kiddo” [petit moutard]. Since this summer, we too began nicknaming him the “Little Kiddo” because one day he told us, referring to the trip to Brittany: “It’s quite a long trip for a little kiddo like me!”’176
When Renoir and Aline were away from Paris, they relied on family friends to help Pierre at boarding school. One such helper was Léon Fauché, Renoir’s studio neighbour. In April 1899, Renoir wrote to Durand-Ruel: ‘I will ask Fauché to ask you for 100 francs to buy clothes f
or Pierre.’177 Bérard was another friend enlisted to help, Aline jotting down the basics to him: ‘Pierre Renoir, Sainte-Croix School, 30 avenue du Roule, Neuilly (Seine), Sunday – pick him up at 10.30 in the morning and bring him back before 8.30 in the evening.’178
One of the most reliable of Pierre’s care-givers was Jeanne Baudot. Pierre did not have his own godmother, while his godfather, Caillebotte, had died the year Pierre left for school, and Jeanne became his surrogate godmother. In February 1900, Renoir wrote to her: ‘I’m delighted that Pierre’s having such a great time with you. This makes up for his being so far away.’179 And a month later, Renoir thanked her for taking Pierre to a play: ‘Pierre was very happy to see the classical theatre. He has wanted to go there for a long time. You’re spoiling him too much.’180
In the winter of 1897, when Pierre was twelve and Jean was three, Victor Charigot, their maternal grandfather, who by then had moved to North Dakota, came to France and met his grandsons for the first and only time.181 Years after this visit, Jean wrote to Pierre, ‘The little girl that our grandfather Charigot showed you a photograph of, is our aunt or half-aunt (I do not know what to call her) Victoria.’182 Victor stayed in France for a few months, returned to his American family and died aged sixty-two in December 1898.183
Unlike Aline’s father, Renoir was always a devoted father and guardian. Besides being involved in the lives of his sons and secret daughter, he continued to take a fatherly interest in Julie Manet and her cousins. In January 1900, Renoir learned that Julie was engaged to Ernest Rouart, whose father, Henri, the engineer, painter and collector, was a close friend of Degas’s, as noted earlier. Renoir wrote to Julie from Grasse: ‘A thousand times Bravo!!! My dear Julie, Now this is really good news that has filled my wife and me with joy. Now I can tell you that he is the fiancé of our dreams. My wife spoke about him to Degas when we were coming back together from a dinner at your home. Our wish is now accomplished, once again, Bravo!!!…. My wife and I send you all our love, and I’m ordering a new suit. Renoir.’184 Four months later, on 31 May 1900, Julie and Ernest were married in a double wedding ceremony with Jeanne Gobillard and the poet Paul Valéry. (Paule Gobillard never married but remained close to Jeanne and Julie, their husbands and their children.) Although Renoir and Aline had planned to go to the wedding, a week before the ceremony, he had written to his dealer a discouraged note: ‘I am taking care of myself as best as possible, I assure you, even though I know it’s useless.’185 The day before the wedding, he was still in Grasse and in poor health.186
Renoir was able to have the relationship with Julie that he could never enjoy with his own daughter, Jeanne. With Julie, he could be openly fatherly and had no need to worry about money since she had her own inheritance and status as a member of the upper class. In contrast, Jeanne had to be kept secret and was poor, illegitimate and lower class. Renoir could not contact her openly and was restricted to sending surreptitious letters. Jeanne was a terrible correspondent and her indecisive behaviour, not too dissimilar to his own, frustrated Renoir. His correspondence with her often included curt discussions of money and pleas for letters of response. No letters from him to Jeanne and Louis exist from the six years after their marriage in 1893: it may be that Renoir stopped in to see them during this period, since he often visited friends not far from the couple. Then, from 1899 and 1900, Jeanne saved six letters from her father, in which he writes only about Jeanne and Louis’s request for money to buy a house that contained a bakery where Louis could work. He tells her nothing about his life, health or family, and asks her nothing about how she and her husband are doing. These six letters are strictly about business.
The artist had never wanted to own his own house and was sceptical about the young couple’s need to own a home. Aline had pressured him into buying their Essoyes house only recently, in 1896. It could be that Renoir thought that his comparatively young daughter, then twenty-nine, and her husband aged thirty-seven should not make such a commitment. Nonetheless, he decided to help, and sent them a letter to inquire about the details of their proposed purchase: ‘I was never able to figure out exactly if these people wanted to sell their house or if it is you who likes it and who hopes to own it. If they wish to sell, how much are they asking for it? Do they want it to be paid all at once, or will they give you more time to pay for it? When you find out all that, write me when you have the chance. And if they do not want you, but someone else, as a buyer, as you implied, why worry?…. If this deal does not work out, you won’t die; you’ll find something else somewhere.’ He continued: ‘I see that the Madré house, where the oven is, went up in price. Your husband had mentioned only four thousand francs.’ And added: ‘I will send you money in a few days. Don’t answer those questions I asked until after you receive these funds. Renoir.’187
The fact that Jeanne would not be the one to inherit the house if Louis should die first also concerned Renoir. According to the Napoleonic Code, should the husband die first, wives came after up to thirteen of her husband’s close relatives as inheritors. Renoir advised, in another letter: ‘My dear Jeanne, Read this carefully, and give it some thought. According to your marriage contract, should you happen to die first, your husband inherits the house, since you yourself have no inheritors. But it is a different scenario should your husband be the one to die first. He has heirs and they will inherit the house.’ Since Louis had no living parents, adult siblings or children, the heirs Renoir mentions must have been his underage siblings. Renoir worked out a simple scheme to get round this problem: ‘Thus, to protect yourself from this serious drawback to you, be kind enough to discuss this with the notary and check with him if my suggestion is a valid one. I simply suggest that it is stipulated on the deed that the money was provided by M. Renoir, or else your husband should write me a receipt fashioned according to the model featured on page two.’ Renoir’s proposed receipt stated: ‘I hereby acknowledge owing Monsieur Renoir the sum of four thousand five hundred francs, borrowed towards the purchase of a house in Madré (Mayenne). Monsieur Renoir commits himself to require this money only after the death of both Robinet spouses…etc. Signed Robinet, This receipt to be authenticated by the mayor.’188 Such a document would mean that the house effectively belonged to Renoir and that he was lending it to the couple until they both should die. In this way, Renoir was being generous to both his daughter and his son-in-law. Jeanne and Louis followed his advice.
Once Renoir had dealt with the business aspects of this process, he added warmth and congeniality in his postscript: ‘P.S. Of course it is understood that I hope that both of you will die as late in life as possible and a long time after me. But in business, you have to think of everything and if I did not do so, I would be in the wrong towards both of you. Your husband is a nice guy whom I like very much and I hope he lives to be a hundred years old. R.’189
Renoir’s shrewdness extended to his end of the transaction as he came up with a way to keep his gift a secret from Aline and others. He divided the 4,500 francs into three parts. His bank account would have shown a transaction of only 1,500 francs. Another 1,500 came from Vollard, to whom Renoir presumably gave a minor work of art. The third source was Fauché. On 9 February 1899, Renoir informed his daughter that his third was on its way: ‘My dear Jeanne, I have just sent you fifteen hundred francs, –1,500–. Be kind enough to reply as soon as you have been notified.’ To keep Aline unaware of the transaction, Renoir requested: ‘Write me back at 14 rue Pigalle, Mlle Maliversery.’190 Mlle Maliversery was one of the Renoirs’ maids who resided separately from the family.
For his part, Vollard wrote on the same day to Jeanne: ‘Madame, Monsieur Renoir asked me to send you fifteen hundred francs.’ The young dealer requested that when she received the money, she should confirm this by writing to: ‘Vollard, Art dealer, 6, rue Laffitte…Paris.’191 This February 1899 letter seems to be the first exchange between Jeanne and Vollard. The probable plan was that Vollard would first be contacted and he, in turn, could commu
nicate confidentially with the artist. In the same letter of 9 February, Renoir wrote to Jeanne that he would later send her more money on top of the 4,500 francs for the house: ‘I will send you one thousand francs around 14 April, not before.’192 At this time, his rheumatoid arthritis was beginning to act up, and he was planning to leave for Cagnes for the rest of winter until spring. To Jeanne, in the same letter, he only wrote: ‘I am leaving Sunday and I want to know if this money has arrived before I go’, urging them to respond: ‘Since I only leave on Sunday, I have time to receive an answer because you won’t hear from me for about six weeks.’ He continued with fatherly advice: ‘Now I persist in advising you both not to rush so as not to make any blunders you would regret later. You are old enough to know what you want. Only you are responsible if you do silly things, whereas I only have to tell you to do what you wish without letting yourself be carried away.’193 He did not tell her where he was going or why. As with every relationship in his life, Renoir kept some things secret. He was in Cagnes from mid-February to mid-April 1899.
Louis and Jeanne had the necessary funds but finalizing the purchase of a house moved more slowly than anticipated. Negotiations began again eighteen months later, on 15 August 1900. Jeanne, it seems, had been reluctant to tell Renoir the details of the potential purchase. He again wrote to Jeanne in an annoyed tone: ‘Dear Jeanne, Go to the notary with all the relevant information and bring me up to date. I’ll come to see you around the 25th, I think, or at the end of the month. Had you told me this at once instead of being so secretive, I would not have worried so much. But you told me that you could not explain things in a letter etc. Anyway, as long as nothing terribly bad has happened. Give me the information that I asked you for and I will do the best I can. Above all, do not tell those in your village that you want this house or they will make you pay double its worth. Say the opposite.’194 Again, Renoir’s advice shows his shrewd business sense. The details of what happened next are unclear. There is no evidence of whether or not Renoir visited them as he had promised. It is also unknown whether the house they purchased was the one about which they had corresponded, but Jeanne and Louis did eventually buy a house with an oven that served both as their home and as Louis’s bakery.195
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