MASP Exhibits its Complete Renoir Collection
Curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Artistic Director, MASP, and Fernando Oliva, curator at MASP, the selection covers almost the entire career of the French artist. Among the paintings is the famous Pink and Blue 鈥� The Cahen d鈥橝nvers Girls (1881), which depicts Elisabeth and Alice, daughters of the banker Louis Cahen d'Anvers (1837-1922), a family that belonged to the Jewish community of the nineteenth century. Alice lived to the age of 89 and died in Nice in 1965. Elisabeth鈥檚 fate was tragic. During the exhibition of MASP works at Fondation Pierre Gianadda in Switzerland in 1987, her nephew Jean de Monbrison wrote to the museum that Elisabeth had been sent to Auschwitz during the Second World War and died on the way to the concentration camp at the age of 69.
The period known as Renoir's 鈥渓ate work鈥� 鈥� influenced by his trip to Italy in 1881, which brought him into contact with Renaissance masters such as Raphael and Titian 鈥� is characterized by paintings in pastel tones, without firm outlines, and overlapping pure colors. These characteristics can be seen in Bather Drying Her Right Leg (c. 1910) and Bather Drying Her Right Arm (Large Sitting Nude) (1912). The theme of the bather, which Renoir had explored from the beginning of his career 鈥� as in Bather and a Griffon Dog (1870) 鈥� became central to his oeuvre until his death in 1917.
In addition to the paintings, the exhibition includes Venus Victrix (1916), a sculpture created while the artist was suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis. Due to the limitations imposed by the disease, the work was created with the help of the young artist Richard Guino (1890-1973). The work dialogues with The Judgement of Paris, which Renoir had painted a few years earlier and which was inspired by the episode of the 鈥渁pple of discord鈥� from Greek mythology.
Renoir鈥檚 works were acquired by the museum during the so-called period of major acquisitions, when, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Pietro Maria Bardi (1900-1990), the founding director of MASP, added works by artists from the European canon, mostly Italian and French, creating the most important collection of European art in the southern hemisphere. The Renoir collection represents the largest number of works by a single artist among the European paintings in the institution's collection.
Curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Artistic Director, MASP, and Fernando Oliva, curator at MASP, the selection covers almost the entire career of the French artist. Among the paintings is the famous Pink and Blue 鈥� The Cahen d鈥橝nvers Girls (1881), which depicts Elisabeth and Alice, daughters of the banker Louis Cahen d'Anvers (1837-1922), a family that belonged to the Jewish community of the nineteenth century. Alice lived to the age of 89 and died in Nice in 1965. Elisabeth鈥檚 fate was tragic. During the exhibition of MASP works at Fondation Pierre Gianadda in Switzerland in 1987, her nephew Jean de Monbrison wrote to the museum that Elisabeth had been sent to Auschwitz during the Second World War and died on the way to the concentration camp at the age of 69.
The period known as Renoir's 鈥渓ate work鈥� 鈥� influenced by his trip to Italy in 1881, which brought him into contact with Renaissance masters such as Raphael and Titian 鈥� is characterized by paintings in pastel tones, without firm outlines, and overlapping pure colors. These characteristics can be seen in Bather Drying Her Right Leg (c. 1910) and Bather Drying Her Right Arm (Large Sitting Nude) (1912). The theme of the bather, which Renoir had explored from the beginning of his career 鈥� as in Bather and a Griffon Dog (1870) 鈥� became central to his oeuvre until his death in 1917.
In addition to the paintings, the exhibition includes Venus Victrix (1916), a sculpture created while the artist was suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis. Due to the limitations imposed by the disease, the work was created with the help of the young artist Richard Guino (1890-1973). The work dialogues with The Judgement of Paris, which Renoir had painted a few years earlier and which was inspired by the episode of the 鈥渁pple of discord鈥� from Greek mythology.
Renoir鈥檚 works were acquired by the museum during the so-called period of major acquisitions, when, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Pietro Maria Bardi (1900-1990), the founding director of MASP, added works by artists from the European canon, mostly Italian and French, creating the most important collection of European art in the southern hemisphere. The Renoir collection represents the largest number of works by a single artist among the European paintings in the institution's collection.
Artists on show
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