Renoir
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Aline had always been happier in the country. Consistent with her rural upbringing, she loved to garden. She also liked to cook.120 Not only did she have an extensive garden in Essoyes but she also planted vegetables at rented houses, such as the Villa de la Poste in Cagnes, from where Renoir wrote in sympathy: ‘The dry weather is preventing the green peas, artichokes and other things from growing.’121 Thus it is no surprise that Aline insisted on a large garden with fruit trees at Les Collettes. Renoir wrote to Julie Manet Rouart in March 1908: ‘We are planting like the old man in La Fontaine [one of whose fables is entitled ‘The Old Man and the Three Young Ones’]. An old man planted, to plant at this age…doesn’t amuse the old man, but amuses my wife more than one would have thought possible. The green peas are growing well, the potatoes too. Thus, for the moment, we have perfect happiness.’122 In a letter of July 1909, Renoir asked a friend: ‘Did you receive the lemons my wife sent you last month?’123 Aline even kept chickens.
Humble tasks had been part of Aline’s family background – her own mother having been a maid and seamstress, and her relative Gabrielle being the family’s nursemaid, model and care-giver – but she also enjoyed being haute-bourgeoise and the boss. Gabrielle’s letters call Aline ‘la patronne’, the boss or manager, just as she called Renoir ‘le patron’.124 Aline enjoyed acting as the manager of the Renoirs’ estates and as the hostess to their visitors, who were all Renoir’s friends and business associates, since she remained the loner she had always been. Nonetheless, on a visit to the Renoirs in Cagnes in 1906, the painter Maurice Denis had written in his diary: ‘Dined at Renoir’s. His wife never stops telling funny stories.’125 Once their new house in Les Collettes was ready in November 1908, they began inviting friends. Among the early guests was Monet. By this time, they had been friends for forty-five years. ‘Monet is within our walls’, Renoir informed Paule Gobillard.126 Monet had been keeping track of Renoir’s health through Renoir’s neighbour in Cagnes, Germaine Salerou, Monet’s second wife’s daughter, who wrote to her mother daily.
Another of the earliest guests at Les Collettes was Renée Rivière, the younger daughter of Georges Rivière, whose wife had died in 1897 (see Chapter 4). Aline, not having a daughter and having been long separated from her own mother, had particular compassion for Renoir’s young women friends whose mothers had died, like Julie Manet and her cousins. Renoir had come to know Renée, who was the same age as his son Pierre, when he painted her portrait in 1907.127 The next year, in February, before their new house was ready, the Renoirs invited Renée to live with them at their rented villa, since it had a piano that she could use in her singing studies.128 After she arrived, he wrote to Julie Manet Rouart: ‘Renée is learning singing exercise after singing exercise and is making rapid progress. You see it is the trilogy of painting, music and architecture. Cagnes is becoming an intellectual centre. Paris is provincial and there you have it!’129 He also reported on Renée’s progress to her father: ‘Renée is still vocalizing and I think she is making some remarkable progress. Above all, she is beginning to lose the Parisian accent – which is deplorable for music.’130 When Renée returned for a second visit a year later, the Renoirs had moved into their new home at Les Collettes, for which Aline had ordered a Pleyel piano (whose payment went through Durand-Ruel).131 The artist wrote to Renée’s father: ‘Tell Renée to bring her music, especially the kind that’s a little vulgar. I’m a bit fed up with beautiful music…. Also, tell Renée, she must sing in the church at Easter, I promised the priest.’132
Renoir’s support calls to mind his encouragement of Julie Manet and her cousins in their painting. In November 1909, he explained to Mme Gangnat: ‘I wrote to my friend [Rivière] to tell him again what I’ve told him a hundred times, that parents owe their children [encouragement to develop] a career whether or not the family has money. Since Renée has one [profession], it’s idiotic to not help her to live her dream. The daughters of concierges are lucky. People admire them and send them to the Conservatory and they are not hurt by it.’133 Here Renoir contrasts the daughters of an haute-bourgeois family like the Rivières and a working-class family like that of an apartment caretaker, asserting that upper-class people should let their daughters become professional singers. Renoir and Aline had other interests in their young guests like Renée. Aline especially took pleasure in matchmaking. She introduced Renée’s older sister, Hélène, and Renoir’s nephew, Edmond Renoir, the son of Renoir’s younger brother Edmond. They were married on 29 November 1909, Renoir giving them his portrait of Georges Rivière painted that spring.134
Meanwhile, Renoir had been involved in art sales with all his dealers, Durand-Ruel, Bernheim and Vollard. Occasionally, Vollard exhibited Renoir’s work in group shows, starting in February 1901.135 During the first decade of the twentieth century, he continued to acquire Renoir’s paintings directly from the artist, as in January 1909, when he bought a group of studies for 5,350 francs.136 In 1907, Vollard bought La Grenouillère, 1869 – one of the foundational works of Impressionism – and three other works for a total of 10,000 francs.137 Less than a year later, on 28 April 1908, he sold La Grenouillère to the Russian collector Sergei Shchukin for 20,000 francs.138 Renoir had also put Vollard in contact with his brother Edmond, who in 1904 sold him nine oil sketches and three drawings for 1,000 francs.139 Vollard acquired Renoir’s works from other dealers and collectors, too, as well as at auctions.140 In addition, he directly commissioned prints, paintings and even sculpture from the artist. Renoir joked about how Vollard pushed him with his innovative schemes: in August 1904, when he was having back problems, he wrote to André: ‘Right now I can’t sit because of a second tailbone that pushes me from behind just like Vollard.’141
So that he could sell more Renoir works, Vollard had to generate ideas for acquiring that art – both works already made and new pieces that Vollard commissioned Renoir to make. In 1902 he asked Renoir to make a lithograph portrait of Cézanne. By this time, Cézanne was becoming increasingly anti-social and paranoid, possibly due to his untreated diabetes. As the art historian John Rewald wrote: ‘Illness and old age accentuated the morbid traits in his character, and what was once only sensitivity and suspicion turned sometimes into a real persecution mania. More than ever before he feared getting into the clutches of others.’142 Nonetheless, Cézanne held Renoir in high esteem and wrote to Joachim Gasquet on 8 July 1902: ‘I am pursuing success through work. I despise all living painters, except Monet and Renoir, and I want to succeed through work.’143 Because Renoir was aware of Cézanne’s idiosyncrasies, he did not attempt to make a portrait from life. Instead, he decided to base his lithograph on his own 1880 pastel that had been commissioned by Chocquet. Renoir made the lithograph with the help of the printer Auguste Clot, and Vollard had about a hundred copies printed.144 At some point between 1915 and 1917, Vollard secured Renoir’s permission to use the pastel and lithograph as the bases for a bronze medallion of Cézanne of which he sold multiple copies.145
Renoir’s lifelong admiration for Cézanne’s art had caused him to acquire four paintings and two watercolours by Cézanne, which were still in his possession at his death.146 In October 1906, Cézanne died in Aix-en-Provence. Three years later, concerned about an appropriate tribute, Renoir wrote to Monet: ‘A bust of Cézanne in the museum (the Aix museum is very pretty), and above all, a painting…. I think that a painter should be represented by his painting.’147 Besides Cézanne’s legacy, Renoir was concerned enough about Cézanne’s son, also called Paul, aged thirty-four in 1906, and his mother, aged fifty-six, to keep in touch with them. In time, he and Aline even found a wife for Paul.
In addition to the lithograph of Cézanne, Vollard commissioned Renoir to draw a portrait of Monet in 1905. However, as Monet’s wife, Alice Hoschedé, explained to her daughter in October 1905: ‘Monet received a very sad letter from Renoir, who is very sick right now, saying that at this time he couldn’t do the drawing of Monet but that he would be happy to see him before his depart
ure for the Midi.’148 A year later, in October 1906, Alice reported back: ‘When Monet arrived, he found a note from Renoir saying that he was expecting him to pose for his drawing and to stay for lunch.’149 After the sitting in Renoir’s Paris studio, Alice wrote again: ‘Monet is delighted with Renoir’s work. They were, I believe, very happy to see each other, even though Mme Renoir was present.’150 This last comment suggests a certain dislike of Aline. A decade later, Vollard used Renoir’s drawing of Monet for a sculpted medallion in the same series as that of Cézanne.151
Renoir was also commissioned by Vollard in 1904 to make a series of twelve lithographs, again to be printed by Auguste Clot. Among them were a profile bust of Vollard, a three-quarter-length portrait of Louis Valtat, two heads of Coco and several studies of nudes.152 Clot made 1,000 sets, 50 on Japan paper and 950 on vellum. Paintings, too, were commissioned. Vollard had admired Renoir’s Large Bathers of 1887 (see page 194) when he saw it on loan from J.-É. Blanche in Bernheim-Jeune’s 1900 Renoir exhibition. In the spring of 1903, Vollard asked Renoir to paint a new version in his current freer, more sculptural style.153 On completion that year, Vollard paid him 1,000 francs.154 Three years later, Vollard commissioned an oil sketch profile bust of himself.155 Then in 1908, the dealer requested a larger and more finished portrait. On 7 May, Renoir invited Vollard to visit him in Cagnes in order to pose: ‘Come whenever you like. Now I’m all set up to work.’156 In this portrait, Renoir shows Vollard holding a statuette by Aristide Maillol, Crouching Woman (see page 243).157
Maillol was one of Vollard’s artist clients, whom he also commissioned to make a bust portrait of Renoir, to be reproduced in bronze replicas. To create the sculpture, Renoir invited Maillol to Essoyes, where he ‘stayed...ten days or so. I was very well received.’ Maillol recalled Renoir’s condition: ‘He gave me a tremendous amount of trouble. It was an impossible face. It was all sick and deformed. There was nothing in it; there was only the nose. When I got there and saw him, I was perplexed. He had no mouth, he had drooping lips. It was awful…. But he had shaved off his beard. Oh! I really had trouble.’ Maillol continued: ‘I ate alone with Renoir. We had lunch together, just the two of us, facing one another. He didn’t eat. He only drank milk. He said to me, “Eat.” I devoured the whole leg of lamb. It was a little leg. I had a feast’ (see page 255).158
Renoir considered the near life-size bust of great importance and stopped painting to pose for it, as Maillol remembered: ‘I worked on Renoir’s bust day and night. He didn’t paint. I said to him: “You can work, you know.” He responded: “No, I want to take this seriously.” He didn’t touch his brushes. He posed day and night. This portrait made him very happy. He observed its progress. He said to me: “It’s really coming alive.”’159 Indeed, on 12 September 1906, Renoir wrote to Vollard: ‘My bust is going splendidly.’160 Unfortunately, as Maillol reported, ‘The last day the bust [made of wax for bronze casting] collapsed. It made him very sad. It happened during the night. I must have made it too moist. These things happen. When we entered the studio, he was more upset than I was. He was dismayed. I picked up the bust and started over. But it was no longer the same. It wasn’t as good.’ Of the second version, Maillol continued: ‘I made an original, a terracotta that was for him. I lent it to Vollard: he wanted to mould it, I think, to make some bronzes.’161 Before returning it to Renoir, Vollard did indeed have a mould made from which numerous casts were produced (see page 255).162 As usual, Renoir forged a warm relationship with this new friend and years later, as Maillol recalled, ‘Renoir had also invited me to come to Cagnes. He really wanted us to come to Cagnes. I would have gone there, but the [First World War] came.’163
At Vollard’s suggestion, Renoir tried sculpture himself in 1907. Since his arthritic hands could not manage clay, he too used soft wax, and made only two pieces with his own hands, portraits of Coco (see page 243). The first was a low-relief profile medallion, the second a bust statue.164 Later, through the lost-wax process, Vollard had fifty bronze copies of the medallion and thirty of the bust made. Since the house at Les Collettes was still being constructed when Vollard had the copies of the medallion made, it was also copied into the white marble mantlepiece of the dining room.
Renoir’s other close companion during these years, Albert André, became a friend of the dealer too. When André got married, Vollard gave the couple Renoir’s Small Head of a Woman, a painting made during Renoir’s 1881–82 Italian trip.165 Vollard knew from André and Maleck’s devotion to the artist that they would treasure any Renoir painting. André had become Renoir’s constant companion, visiting him more often than anybody else. As another client of Durand-Ruel’s, André wrote to him about his visits to Renoir: ‘As for Renoir, he is younger and more brilliant than ever (I mean when the brush is in his hand). I will stay a few more days with him since he’s really too kind for me to be able to leave him.’166 Paintings and other letters attest that André was a frequent guest until Renoir died in 1919,167 the latest companion painter, after Bazille, Sisley, Le Coeur, Monet, Cézanne, Morisot and Caillebotte. Both André and Renoir held an optimistic view of the world and wanted their paintings to express joy and sensuality through bright light, vibrant colours and visible brushstrokes. In February 1902, Renoir wrote to Durand-Ruel: ‘Here I have everything I need: a large room to work in and company. Albert André is extremely agreeable and painting together is better for work.’168 Still, André felt intimidated and had trouble painting side by side with his highly regarded friend, writing to Durand-Ruel a month later: ‘Having Renoir next to me paralyses me completely, whereas my presence does not intimidate him at all. He has made four or five superb canvases and dreams of a bigger one.’169
Besides painting side by side, Renoir allowed André, more than anyone else, to depict him in numerous paintings and drawings from 1901 until 1919. Sometimes, André captured him alone, as in the 1901 portrait of him in his garden, smoking a cigarette.170 At other times, André portrayed him with his family, as in Renoir painting his Family at his Studio, 73 rue Caulaincourt, Paris, 1901.171 Here, Renoir, seen from behind, is painting Gabrielle holding Coco while Aline sits nearby, her girth hidden by Coco’s baby carriage; Jean, wearing the same clown outfit as in Renoir’s 1901 portrait of him, The White Clown, stands between the two women.172 Only Pierre is absent, then at school. André had taken up a position in the Renoir family in fact as well as affection when Renoir had appointed him godfather of Coco that year. Like the godfathers of the two older sons, André was Renoir’s good friend. Since the younger artist often came on extended visits to the Renoirs, he had the chance to interact with his godson.
Aristide Maillol, Bust of Auguste Renoir, 1906. Bronze, height 30.5 cm (12 in.). The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Bequest of Maurice Wertheim
Renoir, too, visited André and Maleck, sometimes when en route between the Côte d’Azur and either Paris or Essoyes, staying with them, for example, in May 1903 in Laudun, a town near Avignon, as Renoir reported: ‘I will stop for a while at Albert André’s in Laudun.’173 During his visits to the Andrés, Renoir painted many pieces, including Portrait of Marguerite Cornillac André and View of Laudun from the House of Albert André, both of 1904,174 and a photograph taken there in 1904 shows him with Maleck and Gabrielle.175 When André became engaged to Maleck in November 1905, Renoir sent her a note praising ‘the excellent character of your future husband’, adding affectionately: ‘My dear Marguerite, I send you all my congratulations and the greatest desire for happiness for the longest possible time.’176
While the infant and child Coco had been a frequent model for his father, as he grew older, he ceased to appear so often in Renoir’s works. As with his older brothers, when Coco insisted on short hair and boyish clothes, Renoir found him less appealing as a model. Additionally, Coco himself seems to have lost interest: in 1909, Renoir told Schnerb that his child was too big to model and did not want to pose any more.177 Although Coco had reached the age where the two older boy
s had been sent to boarding school, Coco’s education was less structured. He and Aline continued moving back and forth each year to Cagnes, Essoyes and Paris, and his parents hired tutors so that he could remain with Aline on these travels, while education officials in Essoyes also took responsibility for coordinating Coco’s lessons in a way that would accommodate his needs.178 In January 1908, for example, when Coco was six years old, Gabrielle informed Rivière on the back of a letter to him from Renoir that, ‘Coco and Jean will be tutored every day, one at the priest’s and the other at the young woman’s.’179
Seven years earlier, when Coco was born, Renoir had painted several portraits of Jean, one of which Renoir kept in his collection until his death, The Artist’s Son Jean drawing (see page 244).180 He sports a boy’s haircut and outfit. Jean later recalled that his father had suggested that a pencil and a piece of paper should be given to him so that he could draw figures of animals while Renoir was painting him.181
In 1902, when Jean was eight, Aline decided that he should follow Pierre to his boarding school. Since this would be Pierre’s last year at Sainte-Croix, Aline felt that, despite the fact that Jean was a year younger than Pierre had been when first attending boarding school, having his older brother as a fellow boarder might help Jean adjust to living away from home. Unfortunately, Jean disliked this first boarding school and, after only six months there, at the Easter break of 1903 refused to return. His parents immediately arranged for him to go to a boarding school near Renoir in the south of France: ‘My wife and Pierre have to leave around the 20th [of April]. I think Jean will stay because we’ve boarded him at [Collège, middle school] Stanislas of Cannes where he is happy as a king.’182 Jean was not as happy as Renoir imagined and he only remained at Stanislas for a few months.