A Maternity by Renoir

by Aymeric Rouillac

RENOIR, THE SCULPTOR

When his wife Aline died in 1915, Renoir designed a funeral monument for her grave in the cemetery of Nice. Together with sculptor Richard Guino, they reinterpreted his 1885 masterpiece depicting her nursing their eldest son Pierre (Musée d'Orsay, RF 1998 35). Both men worked on two sculptures, this "Maternity" and a "Bust" of her, during the summer of 1916, first in Essoyes and then in Paris. In 2005, an enlarged cast bronze version of this bust was stolen from the Renoir tomb which had been transferred to Essoyes.



Between 1913 and 1918, dealer Ambroise Vollard "found a pair of hands" for Renoir in the person of Richard Guino, a young Catalan sculptor who had previously worked with Maillol. Their first joint production consisted in a cycle of mythological works inspired by Renoir's drawings and paintings. Eight copies of the sculptures, cast in bronze and numbered by their founder, Valsuani, were successfully marketed by Gallery Vollard. No contract between Guino and Renoir was signed, only between the Catalan and the dealer. Once approved by the master, the plaster casts were brought to Paris where Vollard had Renoir's signature stamped on them. As casts were edited out of Renoir’s control, the artist decided to put an end to this agreement in 1918.

Made between July and September 1916, our sculpture is not a commission from Vollard but an initiative by the painter and the young sculptor in tribute to Renoir’s deceased wife. The Valsuani foundry subsequently cast an unknown number of bronzes from this plaster in various sizes. Two series of eight bronzes plus four artist's proofs are referenced (Height: 31 and 54 cm), as well as other series made by the Rudier and Susse Bros. foundries, counting ten or twenty copies respectively. In addition, there appears to be two series made posthumously in terracotta, probably from overmouldings: one of them is numbered one to five (Height: 52 cm) while the second, numberless, is marked "Terre de Saline" (Height: 50 cm.).



Formerly housed in the Gallery Vollard collections and then those of Etienne Bignou, who also sold Renoir's bronzes, our plaster may be the master model from which this long and prestigious series originated. Returned with its waxy patina by founder Valsuani to the Vollard Gallery, it may be one of the rare original "Maternity" works by Renoir and Guino from which other casts derived, like a counterpart to the painting that inspired it and is being housed in the Musée d'Orsay collections.

Our heartfelt thanks go to Isabelle Gaétan and Nadège Horner, from the Documentation Studies Department at Musée d'Orsay, for their clarifications.