Although both Renoir and Picasso wished to meet one another, they never did. On 29 July 1919, Rosenberg wrote to Picasso, then in London: ‘I saw Renoir who will be in Paris on 3 August, and I spoke to him of you. It is too complicated to write everything but he wants to meet you; he was impressed by certain things and even more shocked by others.’187 Despite never having met Picasso, Renoir deeply influenced the younger artist. From Rosenberg, Picasso purchased seven paintings by Renoir, all from his late period. One of Renoir’s nudes, Bather seated in Landscape drying her Foot, also called Eurydice, c. 1895–1900,188 inspired Picasso’s Seated Bather drying her Foot, 1921.189 Picasso was intrigued by Renoir’s ‘general evocations of a classical past’, ‘a golden age rooted in bodily sensuality’.190 Shortly after the aged painter died, Picasso copied in charcoal a 1912 photograph of Renoir with his crippled hands,191 as well as three precise line drawings of Renoir’s Lise and Sisley of 1868. Three years after Renoir’s death, Picasso made a variant of Renoir’s Dance at Bougival in his Village Dance, in which a red-hatted woman dances with a hatless man dressed in a blue suit with a white collar.192 Throughout the next five years through 1924, Picasso’s style was at its most classical, including many large nudes directly inspired by Renoir’s late bathers.193 Paintings during Renoir’s last year such as The Great Bathers (see page 246), Girl with Mandolin or The Concert (see page 248) retain his optimistic sensuality. He developed a looser brush style that compensated for his loss of fine motor skills.
Renoir’s final masterpiece, his last version of The Great Bathers, was a joyful painting inspired by the Armistice of 11 November 1918, which brought peace to Europe. The Great Bathers of 1919 is a large painting (only a few centimetres smaller than the 1887 Large Bathers; see page 194) clearly meant for a museum.194 Here Renoir creates a summing-up work, just as he had for each style in his career: The Inn of Mother Anthony, Marlotte, 1866 (see page 84); Dancing at the Moulin de la Galette, 1876 (see page 86); Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881 (see page 92); Dance at Bougival, City Dance and Country Dance; The Large Bathers; The Artist’s Family, 1896 (see page 198); and Variant of The Bathers, 1903.195 Six months after Renoir’s death, his model Dédée wrote to Vollard: ‘He always told me: “when I stop working, it will be over”. I am quite happy that, until the very last moment, he was consoled by his art. He was near death so many times that he wasn’t aware that he was dying.’196 Dédée’s assertion that Renoir was unaware supports all the evidence that until the end, he was still able to escape his pain through his art. Just as Renoir predicted, he died shortly after completing The Great Bathers. After his death, his sons followed his intention and gave the painting to the state Luxembourg Museum in 1923; it now hangs in the Musée d’Orsay.
Renoir died aged seventy-eight on 3 December 1919, at Les Collettes in the presence of Jean and Coco. Pierre, who was in Paris at the time, immediately came to Cagnes. Upon Renoir’s death, Jean sent a telegram to André: ‘Father deceased, pulmonary congestion. Jean Renoir.’197 Six days later, Pierre wrote to Georges Durand-Ruel: ‘My father died within two days, succumbing to a pulmonary congestion. His will to live was so intense that he was going to make it, but his heart was so tired and worn that it couldn’t pull through. He died in his sleep without any suffering just as he always wished.’198 Since Pierre had not been present at the death, he reported to Paul Durand-Ruel that he had asked Jean to write a more detailed letter to Georges Durand-Ruel describing Renoir’s last hours:199
My father had just had broncho-pneumonia which lasted for two weeks. Towards the end of the last month, he seemed to be better and had started to work again, when suddenly on the 1st of December, he felt pretty ill. The doctor diagnosed a pulmonary congestion, but not as serious as last year’s. We could not have guessed it would end this way. During the last two days he kept to his room, but was not constantly bedridden.
He said from time to time, ‘I’m finished’, but without conviction and he said it more often three years ago. The constant care irritated him a little and he didn’t stop making fun of himself.
Tuesday he went to bed at 7 after peacefully smoking a cigarette. He wanted to draw a vase, but we couldn’t find a pencil.
At 8 o’clock, he suddenly became somewhat delirious.
We were astounded and went from relative confidence to the gravest apprehension. His delirium increased. The doctor came. My father was restless until midnight, but didn’t suffer an instant. He certainly did not know he was going to die.
At midnight he became calm and at 2 o’clock he gently passed away. We didn’t have time to alert the priest. Jean Renoir, 20 December.200
The public learned the details of Renoir’s death six days later from a letter to Le Bulletin de la vie artistique from Félix Fénéon, the art critic and adviser to the Bernheims, who was then in Cagnes.201
Renoir’s death certificate was written the day he died: ‘December 3rd, 1919, at 2 a.m., Pierre Auguste Renoir, born in Limoges, 25 February 1841, a painter, Commander of the Légion d’Honneur, son of the deceased Léonard Renoir and of the deceased Marguerite Merlet, his wife, and widower of Aline Victorine Charigot, died in his home in Cagnes.’202
Just as Renoir had not made burial arrangements for Aline before her death, so he had not made any arrangements for himself. When he died, his children obtained permission to have his remains temporarily placed next to Aline’s body, which had lain for four years in the Château cemetery in Nice (as described in Chapter 6). Renoir’s funeral was held three days after his death at the Chapelle du Logis in Nice with an oration by one Abbé Baume.203
In the same letter to Georges Durand-Ruel written six days after Renoir’s death, Pierre wrote: ‘Later we will transport my father’s body to Essoyes.’204 It is curious that Pierre does not mention that his mother’s body would also need to be sent from Nice to her burial plot in Essoyes. At the time of writing, Renoir still had no burial plot, but Pierre and his brothers must have decided that their parents would be placed in adjacent plots. Since Renoir’s tailor brother, Victor, had moved to Essoyes and had died in 1907, he was already buried in the cemetery there.205 Eight months after Renoir died, on 12 August 1920, Pierre purchased a plot for his father in the cemetery, next to but separate from the one he had purchased for his mother (see page 355). The artist’s plot is both larger and in front of Aline’s, their tombstones the same height.206 The purchase agreement stated: ‘to contain, for eternity, the private tomb of Monsieur Pierre Auguste Renoir…and of his family’.207 Nevertheless, it was not until 7 June 1922, thirty months after Renoir’s death, that the remains of Renoir and Aline were moved from Nice to Essoyes.208 Guino’s bronze bust of Aline sits atop her tomb and that of Renoir sits atop his (see page 355).209
Renoir’s death deeply upset the two elderly remaining Impressionists, Monet and Cassatt. Monet, then aged seventy-nine, who had been a close friend of Renoir for more than fifty years, wrote to his friend and biographer, Geffroy: ‘The death of Renoir is for me a painful blow. Along with him a part of my life has disappeared, the struggles and optimism of my youth. It is very hard.’210 Around mid-December 1919, Monet also wrote to Fénéon: ‘You can guess what a pain it is for me, the disappearance of Renoir: he took with himself a part of my life. I haven’t stopped thinking of our youth filled with struggle and hope in the last three days…. It is hard to remain the only one, but not for long certainly, feeling myself every day grow older, even though people tell me the contrary.’211 And a month later, to Joseph Durand-Ruel: ‘Poor [Renoir], he is gone. It is a great loss and a real sadness for me as for you.’212 Cassatt, then aged seventy-five, wrote to Louisine Havemeyer: ‘Renoir died on Tuesday. His vitality was certainly extraordinary, & his pictures, bad & good will sell very high. You know what the last were [Cassatt did not like these]. The early ones will remain.’213
Renoir’s estate, estimated at five million francs, was divided equally among his three sons: Pierre (aged 34), Jean (25) and Coco (18). Pierre assumed responsibility
in dealing with the family inheritance and wrote in the same letter to Georges Durand-Ruel six days after his father’s death: ‘We are leaving everything as is, at least until Claude comes of legal age [twenty-one], and my two brothers have wisely decided to live from now on at Les Collettes.’214 Pierre also assumed responsibility for Renoir’s accounts, writing to Paul Durand-Ruel: ‘If you still have an account with Papa, either as a debtor or a creditor, could you please be so kind as to do nothing at this moment. I will settle it directly with you.’215 Meanwhile, Renoir’s six dealers – Joseph, George and Paul Durand-Ruel, Vollard and Josse and Gaston Bernheim-Jeune – made inventories of the contents of his two houses in Essoyes and Cagnes, one rented apartment in Paris and his various studios.216 When Renoir died, there were 644 paintings and drawings in Cagnes and Paris and 76 in Essoyes. Twelve years after Renoir’s death, in 1931, André and Marc Elder jointly published with Bernheim an illustrated catalogue of these 720 paintings.217 After Coco had turned twenty-one, he inherited the house, studio and grounds at Les Collettes in October 1922, while Pierre inherited the house, studio and grounds at Essoyes. Jean, who was starting his career in film-making and needed money, was compensated by receiving a larger portion of the art.
Renoir’s studio at Cagnes, c. 1918. Photo by Georges Besson. 13 × 17.5 cm (5⅛ × 6⅞ in.). Archives Matisse, Issy-les-Moulineaux. Photo gift of Jacqueline Bret-André
When Renoir’s will was issued three days after his death, it must have come as a surprise to his sons to read: ‘This is my will– I the undersigned Pierre Auguste Renoir, an artist, have made out my will as follows.– I bequeath an annuity of 450 francs to Madame Jeanne, widow of M. Robinet, wife of baker in Madré (Mayenne) who will enjoy the use of it during her life beginning on the day of my death.– This annuity will be assured by registering with a tax of three per cent for the French state by means of French government bonds on 450 francs in her name and for her enjoyment. This gift will be given without any fees or taxes. I revoke all previous wills.– Done and written entirely by my hand in Paris the 14th of October 1908 [signed] Renoir.’218
On reading this will, Pierre, Jean and Coco would surely have enquired about the identity of ‘Madame Jeanne, widow Robinet, baker in Madré’, asking Gabrielle, Vollard or Georgette; Renoir’s three sons must have learned that Jeanne was their half-sister. In contrast, Jeanne had known about her annuity since 1908 when Renoir had established it. Two weeks after Renoir’s death, Pierre wrote to his half-sister for the first time: ‘Madame…I received a copy of my father’s will, which he left in the hands of Maître Duhau, a notary in Paris. In his will, my father bequeaths you a yearly life annuity of 450 francs, starting on the day of his death. As soon as we have resolved the intricacies created by the fact that my youngest brother is under age – and this will most probably happen very soon – this annuity will be paid to you. I will meet M. Duhau regarding this matter some time in January. Sincerely yours, Pierre Renoir.’219 On the same day, 17 December 1919, in Madré, Jeanne received a letter from Duhau about her inheritance: ‘Madame… You will find here enclosed an excerpt from Monsieur Renoir’s will in which he bequeaths you a yearly life annuity of 450 francs. I think I should let you know that Monsieur Renoir’s inheritors have no objection to providing you with this annuity as of now, without waiting for the inheritance to be settled.’220 As Pierre was taking charge of financial matters, eight months later, he again wrote to Jeanne: ‘Madame, If my work permits it, I will come to see you in September, but I cannot promise it. Sincerely yours. Pierre Renoir.’221 Because her annuity was minimal as a result of the devaluation of the franc, soon after Renoir’s death, Jeanne contacted her half-brothers to ask for an increase, to which they agreed. Thus, in the end she received a higher annuity from Renoir’s estate.222
AFTERWORD
Essoyes cemetery with Renoir’s tomb, in which Pierre, Jean and Dido are also buried, and Aline’s tomb, in which Coco (Claude Renoir), Claude Renoir junior and Aline’s mother Emilie are also buried (see page 355).
Pierre inherited his father’s heroic perseverance and acceptance of his own limitations. Remarkably, between 1915 and 1951, despite his paralysed, shrivelled arm from his war wounds, Pierre acted in 60 different plays and 63 movies.1 In 1934, when he was being considered for the Légion d’Honneur (which he received), Pierre summarized his training and extraordinary career: ‘Conservatoire de musique, two second prizes in 1908; first prize in tragedy in 1909. Odéon, ten years at the Porte Saint-Martin, Théâtre de Paris, Gymnase, Théâtre Antoine, Théâtre des Arts, La Madeleine, Les Mathurins…. On tour with theatre company: France, Algeria, Tunisia, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy.’2
His personal life was more difficult. Pierre and Véra divorced in 1925. Four months later, he married Marie-Louise Iribe and they divorced in 1930. Seven years later, he married Elisa Ruis.3 Pierre died in 1952 and was buried in his father’s Essoyes tomb where Guino’s portrait medallion of Pierre is affixed. Pierre and Véra’s son, Claude Renoir junior, the only grandchild whom Renoir knew, was six years old when the painter died. As an adult, he became a cameraman and worked with Jean Renoir and other film-makers (Alexandre Astruc, Roger Vadim and Henri-Georges Clouzot).4 The younger Claude Renoir, who died in 1993, chose to be buried in Aline’s tomb.
Less than two months after Renoir’s death, on 24 January 1920, Jean married Renoir’s model Dédée, and on 31 October 1921, their son Alain named after his grandmother Aline, was born.5 Jean continued to work in pottery and ceramics until 1922–23.6 In 1924, prodded by Dédée, who aspired to be a film star, Jean shot his first movie, Catherine or Une vie sans joie (A Joyless Life), which starred Dédée (using the name Catherine Hessling). Despite Jean’s chronic thigh wound, throughout the next forty-two years he became an internationally renowned director of forty-one films as well as being an actor, producer, translator, adapter and author; he also employed both his brother Coco and his nephew Claude to work on his films. Jean’s movies and plays reveal the same optimistic, sensual outlook as do his father’s paintings.7 For both Renoir and Jean, ‘materialism, machinery, and mass production stifle the individual and degrade nature and artistic quality’.8 It is unfortunate that Jean’s relationship with Dédée had insoluble problems, as had Renoir’s with Aline. Jean and Dédée separated before the Second World War and then divorced. In December 1941, Jean went to the United States with his Brazilian ‘script-girl’, Dido Freire, whom he married in 1944. Jean died in 1979. He had arranged for his family to send his ashes from Beverly Hills to Essoyes so that he could be buried with his father. When Dido died in 1990, her ashes also were sent to Essoyes to be interred with Jean’s, as she had arranged. Guino’s portrait medallion of Jean appears below his brother’s on the tomb.
Gabrielle and her partner Conrad Slade continued to live in Cagnes near the Renoirs. Their son, named Jean Slade after Jean Renoir (later Americanized to John), was born on 9 December 1920. Gabrielle and Conrad married on 18 May 1921, with Jean Renoir serving as a witness. The Slades went to the United States in 1941 and soon followed Jean to Hollywood. In 1955, Gabrielle, by then aged seventy-seven and a widow, had a house built in Beverly Hills near Jean and Dido’s home, where she lived with her son. Gabrielle helped Jean write his 1958 book, Renoir, My Father. She died the following year at the age of eighty and was buried in the Mt Hope Cemetery in Mattapan, Massachusetts, along with her husband and other members of the Slade family.
Coco carried on his father’s love of craftsmanship, pursuing ceramics as his father had wanted. Like his mother, he, too, developed diabetes. Two years after Renoir died, on 12 December 1921, Coco aged only twenty married Paulette Dupré; their son Paul was born three years later. Besides later working for Jean in cinema, Coco also owned a cinema, theatre and casino complex. He died in 1969; he had chosen to be buried in Aline’s tomb along with his maternal grandmother.
Renoir’s daughter Jeanne moved from her home in Madré back to Sainte-Marguerite-de-Carrouges where h
er foster family welcomed her. Jeanne lived there until her death in 1934 aged sixty-four, and is buried with her husband in Madré’s cemetery.
The year after Renoir died, three important exhibitions of his art took place. In Paris, Durand-Ruel exhibited 63 paintings, 13 pastels and several drawings, and in New York, he showed 41 paintings. The Salon d’Automne mounted a show of 31 Renoirs of 1915–19. From 1921 to 1929, Renoir’s works were shown in 57 exhibitions, of which 12 were solo shows. In every decade from the 1930s to the end of the 1960s, except for the wartime 1940s, his works were included in at least 20 shows, at least half of them devoted solely to his work.9 In 1973, a major Renoir retrospective was held at the Art Institute of Chicago and, in 1985, an international Renoir exhibition took place in Boston, London and Paris. The exhibition ‘Renoir’s Portraits’ was held in Ottawa in 1997. In 2003–04, ‘Renoir and Algeria’ was held in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Dallas and Paris. ‘Renoir Landscapes 1865–1883’ was held in London, Ottawa and Philadelphia in 2007–08. Paris, Los Angeles and Philadelphia hosted ‘Renoir in the 20th Century’ in 2009–10, and in 2012, ‘Renoir, Impressionism and Full-Length Painting’ was held in New York.
Essoyes cemetery with Renoir’s tomb (with remains of Pierre and Jean Renoir) and Aline’s tomb (with remains of Coco Renoir). Photographer unknown
The prices of Renoir’s works have continued to spiral. Shortly after his death, The Pont Neuf, 1872, which had been sold for 300 francs in 1875, fetched 93,000 francs. In 1923, Durand-Ruel sold Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881 (see page 92) to Duncan Phillips for $185,000. In 1982, the same painting was insured for 10 million dollars while in a travelling exhibition.10 In 1925, the auction of Maurice Gangnat’s collection of 161 paintings brought more than 10 million francs. The Pont des Arts, 1867, fetched 200 francs in 1872; in 1932, 133,000 francs; in 1968, $1.55 million. This represents a twelve-thousandfold increase in ninety-odd years.11 The monetary value of Renoir’s paintings continue to be among the highest. In 2006, a list of the highest prices ever paid at auction for any painting listed Renoir’s Dancing at the Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre (a smaller version of the Musée d’Orsay’s version) as selling for $78.1 million on 17 May 1990 at Sotheby’s New York.12 The two paintings of higher value at this time are Van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr Gachet, sold at Christie’s New York on 15 May 1990 for $82.5 million, and later, Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, sold privately on 18 June 2006 for $135 million.
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