Renoir's pastel Study for the Bathers

EVIDENCE OF AUTHENTICITY FOR PASTEL STUDY FOR THE GREAT BATHERS BY PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR

"Renoir was the last of the classical painters" Renoir biographer

This pastel drawing is a newly discovered early study for the Pierre Auguste Renoir painting THE GREAT BATHERS, 1883-1887. This Renoir study is from a series of approximately 30 drawings wherein Renoir worked out issues of composition, light, shading, volume, flatness, scale and subject matter. The authenticity of the drawing was researched and confirmed by a Dutch analysis and investigation of the unique French unique glossy machine coated paper used by Renoir; who had worked as a porcelain painter, prior to becoming an artist.

Pastel Study For the Bathers 1883-84
53 cm. x 68cm.

The subject of the pastel is Aline Charigot, his new bride, posing in opposing positions as happy Venuses, and with a ghost image of her arm, in a third position, to the right. Please note the leg of the front model is identical in all of his studies and paintings which are represented in the collections of various museums. Aline, Renoir's wife was the classical model he was looking for all of his life. Renoir had to have done a classical study of her for the front two models for the painting the Bathers. She was the only who could pose for the bodies in the painting. There is the classical study for the third girl right that is known and I have found the classical pastel study for the front two models left.

Large Bathers Study 1884-1887
Orsay Museum
108 x 162cm.

Please note all of the Bather's studies were done on one roll of machine made paper.

The Great Bathers 1884-1887
Philadelphia Museum of Art
115 x 170cm.

Variations of the Bathers 1884-1903
Massena Museum, Nice.
112 x 166cm

Splashing Figure Third Girl R (study for the Bathers),
c 1884-1885,
Chalk with brush on paper laid down on canvas,
Art Institute of Chicago

Whole drawing showing shading and classical lines for the 3rd model right for the final classical painting.
98.4cm. x 64.13cm

This image of the 3rd girl right has been cropped from Orsay drawing for demonstration purposes only showing what Renoir copied. The whole image is shown above.

Detail of crayon study in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn. This image of a third girl represents the development of the hand in the ghost image of the original color pastel study.

The following is about the line going through the hands of pastel. I have found this line in the following image.


Renoir would sometimes have lines going through the exterminates as seen in the pastel and the above close up image of the study for the third girl right. If you look close you can see this line going through the model's thigh below the hands and then the same line extends with pencil. I do not know the reasons for these crop lines.

Renoir is known to copy over and over the same lines but each time there was something different in his drawings. He was known to trace on the paper and canvas. Enlarging images was also common for Renoir being a graphic artist besides a porcelain painter. Renoir worked for a art graphic magazine where his brother Edmund worked as editor and this is where he got this special grained paper called "guillotage". This is the first time he could experiment on this one roll of paper during 1880 being poor and not able to afford paper.


The following is the plaque and company label that was attached to the framing of the pastel.





Pursuit of Scientific Evidence

Anytime someone wants to see any correspondence from McCrone Associates concerning testing the Renoir pastel for Renoir research purposes is welcome to do so by contacting me. In May 200o Dr. Walter McCrone came to my house after the McCrone report was written two different times and admitted McCrone Associates left out important information in the McCrone Report.


For reasons I do not understand is McCrone Associates did not use an electron microscope on the paper. It is too disappointing I did not have this paper information McCrone Associates promised before I went to the Wildensteins. Despite not having this information McCrone Associates pigment analysis and data sheet discovered restoration. Without them the Renoir would not have been discovered. Please note it took many hours studying the McCrone data to find a pigment pattern in the data after Dr. McCrone told me to check the data and study it. I knew something had to explain the black around edge and it was luck Dr. McCrone told me to study the data.

Luckily two years later, going to Europe, a report was completed in December of 2002.
For the full Dutch 30 page Renoir paper report on the paper the pastel is on go to: http://www.onderzoeksbureau-defacto.nl/index_en.html

The Dutch Renoir paper report discovery by Adriaan Kardinaal and Dr. Henk Porck, Amsterdam, is so precise that Dr. Margaret Peggy Ellis of New York University and International Foundation for Art Research can not dispute the great art discovery nor McCrone Associates with access to museums.

In a letter dated 2008, IFAR referees me to Wildenstein Institute after reviewing the Dutch Renoir paper report and they thanked me for a copy of the report for their committee.

For reasons I do not understand is McCrone Associates did not use an electron microscope on the paper. It is too disappointing I did not have this paper information McCrone Associates promised before I went to the Wildensteins. Despite not having this information McCrone Associates pigment analysis and data sheet discovered restoration. Without them the Renoir would not have been discovered. Please note it took many hours studying the McCrone data to find a pigment pattern in the data after Dr. McCrone told me to check the data and study it. I knew something had to explain the black around edge and it was luck Dr. McCrone told me to study the data.

After a 6 months of researching into paper experts, I was suggested by the University of Maine to contact the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PAPER HISTORIANS. I was than referred to Dr. Henk Porck who has made great discoveries to preserve books and other paper discoveries. Dr. Porck's reply to my request was that he would help. Mr. Adriaan Kardinaal made a team of 20 people in 2002 to do the testing and research. It took one year to finish the report. The the University of Maine and INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PAPER HISTORIANS help save the Renoir. I will always be grateful for their help to find a person who would help.


The pastel was purchased at an antique show in April 3, 1993. But the paper the pastel is on that Renoir used was not investigated until 2002, years after correspondence with the Renoir expert, François Daulte from 1993-1997, and after the request of the Wildenstein Institute -- who had wisely and rightly requested the prior tests in 1999 using the top art scientist in world. One last note about the paper discovery in 2002: no great institute, great museum, paper scientist or Renoir expert in the world has disputed the paper report. The paper Renoir used for his studies was unique in that it was only manufactured once on 19th century machine destroyed before 1890. Please note it took years to find the people who were able to test the paper and I am grateful that it was done.


One of the short best written sites about Renoir's ideas is:
http://www.artknowledgenews.com/2009-09-23-20-40-11-grand-palais-showcases-artwork-from-the-second-half-of-pierre-auguste-renoirs-career.html.

I also think three of the best written books about Renoir are: Renoir Painter of Happiness by Gilles Neret, published by Taschen 2001; and Renoir My Father by Jean Renoir and Renoir by Nicholas Wadley.

People ask how can you tell a print from an original work of art?
The answer is that there are books how to identify prints and original works of art in libraries, you can go to a print dealer or art dealer and they will help and explain, art conservator, you can google the question finding results that will tell you how to identify a print and even what kind of print, etching, lithograph, etc. You can have it tested scientifically. Try to study the artist too, this will help too. If someone says print without showing proof, go to someone else who is an expert in his field. If any person tells you will never know for sure if it's a print or not, you can be sure that subjective statement is false and no honest expert will ever tell you that.

For more detailed photos of the pastel study go to Renoirdiscovery.com.

The above letter was written by Francois Daulte, the Renoir expert in 1996 responding to my letter asking him where is the classical finished study for front two models. In Mr. Dalute's letter, he said what I wrote was precise information for the Renoir pastel and one day he would come see the drawing. Sadly he died a few years after this letter. Mr. Daulte wrote me 6 times over the period from 1994 to 1997 always attributing the pastel to Renor. Mr Daulte help me understand what the pastel was all about during those years of letter writng.

Letter from the Bernheim Jeune gallery, signed by Guy-Patrice Dauberville, attributing PASTEL STUDY FOR THE GREAT BATHERS to PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR. Note: The letter above was correctly and expertly written before the discovery of Renoir's paper with testing in 2002.

After photographing art for the biggest name artists, collectors, auction houses, etc. for 35 years and having a lost work of art authenticated by the artist family at Sotheby's auction house, I can tell you without a doubt that I believe the Renoir pastel to be a very important study that changed the style Renoir's nudes because this is the logical and normal way Renoir would have planned the creation of his masterpiece, The Bathers. Renoir studied extensively the old masters and how frescoes were done. This is how the pastel was done on a flat plane. He studied in Italy frescoes and even repaired some while traveling though Italy. This is how the pastel was done on a flat plane as if it was painted as a fresco. Please note: Renoir was trained as a porcelain painter so he knew how to draw using only two or three thin layers of pigment to achieve the pastel study for the Bathers. Also the evidence cited in this blog completely refutes those that have attempted to dismiss the signed Renoir pastel study as a print, etching photo, copy with no proof. This tells me that what I have is a real Renoir pastel.

In addition friends in France have spoken to the previous owner's family in 1994 and 2009, the Wolf Family, several times and they do not dispute that they owned this Renoir pastel and the mother had stated they owned a pastel Renoir. Ms. Wolf also stated it was sold in 1965 and was stored in Florida. The dealer who sold the pastel to me came from there. The dealer did not know what he had. There is evidence of storage from tests and visual inspection of framing and glass.

I have many letters from reputable art dealers as well as reports from paper conservators and art conservators’ stating this is a pastel on special paper of the period of 1880.


Joel Oppenheimer paper report on stating Renoir pastel

The reason the paper of Renoir was never studied prior to the 1990's is because most of the Renoir drawings are behind glass in museums and the special scientific instruments required to measure the organic materials in art materials were not available until the early 1990's. These measurements are so precise that they are able identify the characteristics of Renoir’s unique paper. The Dutch scientists performed scientific measurements on Renoir’s unique paper in 2002. This information can be verified by the Fogg museum or any great museum. The reason I went ahead to have the drawing tested was when the Fogg allowed me to see their Bather study I saw the same unique creases found under the pastel drawing These creases seen in all the Bathers studies were made on only one side of the paper, the side the special grain is on.
The reverse side of the paper is felt like. These creases were created by the machine process.

When you found the pastel the experts you consulted could not believe what you had found. And now that there is sufficient evidence to overcome their doubts. I am hoping the experts are willing to look at the new evidence and give a response as they should since the Fogg museum and Wildenstein suggested to me to test the pastel in 1999. I never even knew you could test a work of art and now all this positive information about something no Renoir expert knew about scientifically. There is one last reason the experts and museums should look at this again is art was taken from Renoir's house before he died and was never documented. The paper discovery is so precise that if you measure the components of paper of other Renoir drawings, the measurements will be the same numbers found in the testing of the paper the pastel I found is on.

This site is for historical purposes only.
Go to: http://artvoice.com/issues/v9n35/authenticity
Intelligent article about art and the
Renoir pastel study that was newly found.