''Lise with a Parasol'' (french: Lise – La femme à l'ombrelle) is an
oil on canvas
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
painting by French artist
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...
, created in 1867 during his early Salon period. The full-length painting depicts model
Lise Tréhot
Lise Tréhot (14 March 1848 – 12 March 1922) was a French art model who posed for artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1866 until 1872, during his early Salon period. She appeared in more than twenty paintings, including notable works such as ...
posing in a forest. She wears a white muslin dress and holds a black lace parasol to shade her from the sunlight, which filters down through the leaves, contrasting her face in the shadow and her body in the light, highlighting her dress rather than her face. After having several paintings rejected by the
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
, Renoir's ''Lise with a Parasol'' was finally accepted and exhibited in May 1868.
The painting was one of Renoir's first critically successful works. At this time, Renoir's technique was still influenced by
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...
, but he continued to develop his unique style painting filtered light which he would return to in ''
The Swing'' (1876) and ''
Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette'' (1876). The almost life-size portrait and unusual contrast in ''Lise with a Parasol'' led several critics to ridicule the work.
Théodore Duret
Théodore Duret (20 January 1838, Saintes – 16 January 1927, Paris) was a French journalist, author and art critic. He was one of the first advocates of Courbet, Manet, and the Impressionists. One of his best known works is ''Critique d'Ava ...
, a passionate supporter of the nascent
Impressionists
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
, bought the painting from Renoir, who was unable to sell it.
Karl Ernst Osthaus
Karl Ernst Osthaus (15 April 1874, in Hagen – 25 March 1921, in Merano) was an important German patron of avant-garde art and architecture.
Life
Osthaus was born to a wealthy banking family, who also owned several businesses in the textile a ...
, a German patron of avant-garde art, acquired ''Lise with a Parasol'' in 1901 for the
Museum Folkwang
Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...
.
Background
In November 1860,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...
(1841–1919) entered the private studio of
Charles Gleyre
Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre (2 May 1806 – 5 May 1874), was a Swiss artist who was a resident in France from an early age. He took over the studio of Paul Delaroche in 1843 and taught a number of younger artists who became prominent, including H ...
(1806–1874) and was later admitted to the
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...
in April 1861. In Gleyre's studio, Renoir became friends with fellow students
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
(1840–1926),
Alfred Sisley
Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedicatio ...
(1839–1899), and
Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870). During the summer of 1862, Renoir and his friends painted landscapes in the
Forest of Fontainebleau
The forest of Fontainebleau (french: Forêt de Fontainebleau, or ''Forêt de Bière'', meaning "forest of heather") is a mixed deciduous forest lying southeast of Paris, France. It is located primarily in the arrondissement of Fontainebleau ...
, following in the tradition of the
Barbizon school
The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement towards Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its name f ...
before them. It was in the forest where Renoir first met
Narcisse Virgilio Díaz (1807–1876), who, according to popular anecdote, saved Renoir from a vicious beating by using his cane to beat away attackers who were making fun of Renoir's porcelain smock. Renoir and Díaz had shared interests; they both got their start as decorators of porcelain before turning to painting. Díaz helped mentor Renoir, gave him access to art supplies, and influenced and changed his style, discouraging Renoir's overuse of bitumen and leading him to lighten his palette. Art critic
Jean Bouret writes: "Diaz, still wearing his old porcelain decorator's smock (like
Troyon
Troyon () is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
See also
*Communes of the Meuse department
*Parc naturel régional de Lorraine
Lorraine Regional Natural Park (French: ''Parc naturel régional de Lorraine'' ...
and
Dupré), happened to meet Renoir in a clearing of the forest and recommended to him to use lighter tones, the very advice he himself had been given by
Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
thirty years earlier. So a tradition was handed on, and henceforth, it would be the task of other 'sons of light' to bear the torch."
In his research on collaboration and friendship dynamics among the French Impressionists, sociologist Michael P. Farrell notes that the group learned together from their shared successes and failures. The successful application of new knowledge about color Renoir acquired from Díaz was quickly shared with his friends. Sisley was resistant at first, thinking it was "crazy" to paint colored light ("The idea of making trees blue and the ground purple!") instead of the dark colors used in the classical style they were used to applying. But after playing around with the idea, Sisley soon embraced the new practice, and it was shared with Monet and Bazille. Renoir's exploratory use of color confirmed what Monet had previously learned from his mentor, Dutch painter
Johan Jongkind
Johan Barthold Jongkind (3 June 1819 – 9 February 1891) was a Dutch painter and printmaker. He painted marine landscapes in a free manner and is regarded as a forerunner of Impressionism.
Biography
Jongkind was born in the town of Lattr ...
(1819–1891), a forerunner of Impressionism. But with the success of these experiments also came failures, which were still influential. Monet's experiment with large format painting and his failure with ''
Luncheon on the Grass
Lunch is a meal eaten around the middle of the day. It is commonly the second meal of the day, after breakfast, and varies in size by culture and region.
Etymology
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED''), the etymology ...
'' (1865–1866) greatly influenced the close group of friends, with Monet's style helping to inform Renoir's approach with ''Lise with a Parasol'' in 1867.
![Forest of Fontainebleau 1858 TMOA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Forest_of_Fontainebleau_1858_TMOA.jpg)
Around 1865, Renoir met
Lise Tréhot
Lise Tréhot (14 March 1848 – 12 March 1922) was a French art model who posed for artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1866 until 1872, during his early Salon period. She appeared in more than twenty paintings, including notable works such as ...
through his friend, former architect and painter
Jules Le Coeur
Jules is the French form of the Latin "Julius" (e.g. Jules César, the French name for Julius Caesar). It is the given name of:
People with the name
*Jules Aarons (1921–2008), American space physicist and photographer
*Jules Abadie (1876–195 ...
, who was involved in a relationship with
Clémence, Lise's sister. Jules was featured in two of Renoir's works in 1866, ''
Mother Anthony's Tavern
''Mother Anthony's Tavern'' (french: Le cabaret de la Mère Antony à Bourron-Marlotte), also known as ''At the Inn of Mother Anthony'', is an 1866 oil-on-canvas painting made by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir during his Fontainebleau period ...
'' and ''Jules Le Coeur in Fontainebleau Forest''. From around 1865 to 1872, Lise modeled for Renoir and was his lover and companion during his early Salon period. Meanwhile, Renoir continued to face rejection at the Salon with ''
Paysage avec deux figures'' (1866) and ''
Diana'' (1867), two works featuring Lise as a model. Renoir's innovative work brought great ridicule and poverty, as he was unable to sell his paintings. He survived by devoting himself to painting portraits for wealthy patrons like the Le Coeur family. For about a decade, Renoir painted portraits and still lifes for the Le Coeur's and received a commission from Jules's brother Charles (''Charles Le Coeur'', 1874) to paint decorations on the ceiling for a town house he was designing for Romanian Prince George Bibescu. Later, in 1874, the Le Coeur's ten year patronage came to an abrupt end when Renoir sent Charles's 16-year-old daughter Marie, (''Portrait of Marie Le Coeur'', 1870) a
love letter
A love letter is an expression of love in written form. However delivered, the letter may be anything from a short and simple message of love to a lengthy explanation and description of feelings.
History
One of the oldest references to a lo ...
, leading to Renoir's permanent ban from the Le Coeur residence. The Le Coeur family were the first collectors of Renoir's work and held on to his paintings until the 1920s. Art historian
Douglas Cooper notes, "Like Lise, the Le Coeurs had given moral support and encouragement to Renoir during those bleak years when he was struggling, in the face of poverty and frustration, to overcome the difficulties of allowing his artistic personality and vision to develop. And like Lise, too, they disappear out of Renoir's ''ambiance'' just at the moment when his style first attains to maturity and shortly before he was to experience his first worldly successes."
Development
Renoir sold himself as a
figure painter during the early Salon period from 1863-1873, where he created large-scale works featuring figures in the outdoors, with only one landscape (''
Soirée d'été'') submitted to the Salon during that entire time. Before the Impressionists held their first exhibitions in the 1870s, conventional academic art ranked landscape painting lower than history, portraiture, and genre painting. "Despite his attachment to Le Coeur and Marlotte, and to Monet and Sisley", writes art historian
Colin B. Bailey, "landscape painting was a secondary endeavor for him." Oddly enough, Renoir's refusal to identify himself as a landscapist to conform to the academic art demands of the day may have worked against his efforts to sell his paintings, as art dealers like
Paul Durand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel (31 October 1831, Paris – 5 February 1922, Paris) was a French art dealer associated with the Impressionists and the Barbizon School. Being the first to support artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste ...
were looking to buy landscapes, not figure paintings.
Renoir began painting ''Lise with a Parasol'' in the summer of 1867, possibly in August, when he was 26 years old. Previously, it was assumed that Renoir had composed the painting in the
Fontainebleau forest
The forest of Fontainebleau (french: Forêt de Fontainebleau, or ''Forêt de Bière'', meaning "forest of heather") is a mixed deciduous forest lying southeast of Paris, France. It is located primarily in the arrondissement of Fontainebleau ...
, close to
Chailly-en-Brie near
Bourron-Marlotte
Bourron-Marlotte () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. In the second half of the 19th century, it was visited by several impressionist painters including Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Augu ...
, just like he had done with ''
Mother Anthony's Tavern
''Mother Anthony's Tavern'' (french: Le cabaret de la Mère Antony à Bourron-Marlotte), also known as ''At the Inn of Mother Anthony'', is an 1866 oil-on-canvas painting made by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir during his Fontainebleau period ...
'' (1866). More recent scholarship, however, points to Renoir painting the work in the
Chantilly Forest
Chantilly Forest or Forest of Chantilly (Forêt de Chantilly) is a forest that spreads across , located mainly in the Oise, north of Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, ...
of
Chantilly, Oise
Chantilly ( , ) is a commune in the Oise department in the Valley of the Nonette in the Hauts-de-France region of Northern France. Surrounded by Chantilly Forest, the town of 10,863 inhabitants (2017) falls within the metropolitan area of Pari ...
, for two months, from July to August. Renoir's friend,
Edmond Maître (1840–1898), sent a message to
Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870) about how Renoir's technique had recently changed during this time, writing on August 23, 1867, that although Renoir was in Chantilly, the last time Maître saw him in Paris earlier in the year, Renoir was "painting strange canvases, having traded turpentine for an infamous sulfate and using, instead of a knife, the little syringe that you know." It is unknown if Renoir completed the painting of ''Lise with a Parasol'' in the studio or ''
en plein air
''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors.
This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...
'' in the forest. "Even if Renoir largely worked on the painting in the studio—we do not know enough about his practice in the 1860s—he presented his subjects as plein air painting," writes art historian
Gary Tinterow
Gary Tinterow OAL (born 1953 in Louisville) is an American art historian and curator. A specialist on 19th-century French art, Tinterow is currently Director and Margaret Alkek Williams Chair of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Career
Born ...
.
[Tinterow 1994a, p. 140.]
Exhibition
Simply titled ''Lise'', Renoir submitted the painting to the Salon of 1868 and it was accepted where it received positive feedback.
[Roos 1996, p. 118-119.] It was Renoir's first critically successful work, but according to Tinterow, "the jury had stigmatized Renoir as a rebel, along with Courbet, Manet, and Monet." The attention Renoir garnered with ''Lise'' led the administrators of the Salon to move ''Lise'', along with paintings by Bazille and Monet, to a remote gallery known as the "rubbish dump" (''dépotoir'').
When Renoir's work was exhibited by the Salon early in his career, it was often ''
skied'', a process where his paintings were deliberately hung in areas such as high places and corners where it was difficult for the public to view and would receive the least attention.
[Borgmeyer 1913, p. 146.] Art historian Jane M. Roos notes that "relegating works to the ''dépotoir'' was a favorite tactic of the administration, a "humiliation" in
Castagnary's words and a sure sign that a painting had displeased the establishment or, perhaps, pleased the public too much."
Description
''Lise with a Parasol'' is a full-length, almost life-size portrait of a young woman, standing in a forest clearing. She wears a small,
pork pie
A pork pie is a traditional English meat pie, usually served either at room temperature or cold (although often served hot in Yorkshire). It consists of a filling of roughly chopped pork and pork fat, surrounded by a layer of jellied pork stock ...
straw hat with red ribbons, and a long white
muslin
Muslin () is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq, where it was first manufactured.
Muslin of uncommonly delicate handsp ...
dress with a long black sash; the dress is modestly buttoned to the neck and has long sheer sleeves. Lise carries a black lace parasol to shade her head while her body is in strong sunlight, standing on a patch of grass. The initials of "A" (Auguste) and "L" (Lise) are marked as an
arborglyph
Arborglyphs, dendroglyphs, silvaglyphs, or modified cultural trees are carvings of shapes and symbols into the bark of living trees. Although most often referring to ancient cultural practices, the term also refers to modern tree-carving.
Love ...
on the trunk of the tree in the shade behind her.
Art historian John House notes that the work "explore
the borderlines between portraiture and
genre painting
Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...
".
[Lucy & House 2012, p. 69.] Renoir's decision to name the painting using only the first name of his model indicates, according to House, that this is not a traditional
portrait painting
Portrait Painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commission, for public and pr ...
, as such works typically used family names or initials. By using Lise's first name as the title, House argues that Renoir was pointing to her status as a
mistress
Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to:
Romance and relationships
* Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a ...
(or an unmarried female lover and companion).
Critical reception
In the late 1860s, Renoir was still in the process of developing his own unique style and technique. Critics noted that ''Lise with a Parasol'', like several of Renoir's earlier paintings, ''
Mother Anthony's Tavern
''Mother Anthony's Tavern'' (french: Le cabaret de la Mère Antony à Bourron-Marlotte), also known as ''At the Inn of Mother Anthony'', is an 1866 oil-on-canvas painting made by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir during his Fontainebleau period ...
'' (1866) and ''
Diana'' (1867), showed the influence of other artists, notably French
Realist painter
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...
. Art historians
Lionello Venturi
Lionello Venturi (25 April 1885, Modena – 14 August 1961, Rome) was an Italian historian and critic of art. He edited the first catalogue raisonné of Paul Cézanne.
Life
Lionello Venturi was born in 1885, son of art historian Adolfo Venturi. ...
and
Jean Leymarie both note the influence of Courbet, particularly from his work ''
Young Ladies of the Village'' (1852). The model for the central figure in that painting is Courbet's sister Juliette, who appears in profile holding a parasol in a similar pose to Renoir's Lise. Critics evoked comparison with previous paintings and artists such as the image of the ''
Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl'' (1861-62) by
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...
, the image of ''
Olympia
The name Olympia may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games
* ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...
'' (1863) by
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.
Born ...
, and the painting of ''
Camille'' (1866) by
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
.
Art critic
Zacharie Astruc
Zacharie Astruc (23 February 1833 in Angers – 24 May 1907 in Paris) was a French sculptor, painter, poet, and art critic.
He was an important figure in the cultural life of France in the second half of the 19th century, and participated ...
and writer
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
both viewed Renoir's ''Lise with a Parasol'' as a continuation of Monet's ''Camille''. Astruc, who was also Renoir's personal friend, described Lise as the "likeable Parisian girl in the woods", and viewed the painting as part of a trinity beginning with Manet’s ''Olympia'', followed by ''Camille'' and ending with ''Lise with a Parasol''.
There was no major opposition to ''Lise with a Parasol'' at the Salon. Art critic
Théophile Thoré
Theophilus is a male given name with a range of alternative spellings. Its origin is the Greek word Θεόφιλος from θεός (God) and φιλία (love or affection) can be translated as "Love of God" or "Friend of God", i.e., it is a theoph ...
, an early supporter of the Impressionists, praised the work. Thoré wrote: "The dress of white gauze is in full light, but with a slight greenish cast from the reflection of the foilage. The head and neck are held in a delicate half-shadow under the shade of the parasol. The effect is so natural and so true that one might very well find it false, because one is used to nature represented in conventional colors, but does not color depend on the environment which surrounds it?"
Tinterow attributes direct criticism of the painting to Renoir's decision to shadow Tréhot's face in darkness and emphasize the reflection of sunlight from her white dress. This unusual contrast was immediately noticed by critics who ridiculed Tréhot's appearance.
In ''Le Salon Pour Rire'', French caricaturist
André Gill
André Gill (17 October 1840 – 1 May 1885) was a French caricaturist. Born Louis-Alexandre Gosset de Guînes at Paris, the son of the Comte de Guînes and Sylvie-Adeline Gosset, Gill studied at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. H ...
likened Tréhot in ''Lise with a Parasol'' to "a nice semisoft cheese out for a stroll", while
Ferdinand de Lasteyrie described the painting as "the figure of a fat woman daubed with white".
File:Young Ladies of the Village MET DT1967.jpg, ''Young Ladies of the Village'' (1852) by Gustave Courbet
File:Courbet Renoir comparison.jpg, Comparison between the central figure of ''Young Ladies of the Village'' and ''Lise with a Parasol''
File:Whistler James Symphony in White no 1 (The White Girl) 1862.jpg, ''Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl'' (1861–62) by James Abbott McNeill Whistler
File:Edouard Manet - Olympia - Google Art ProjectFXD.jpg, ''Olympia'' (1863) by Edouard Manet
File:Claude Monet - Camille.JPG, ''Camille'' (1866) by Claude Monet
File:Claude Monet 024.jpg, ''Women in the Garden'' (1866) by Claude Monet
Provenance
![Lise caricature by André Gill](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Lise_caricature_by_Andr%C3%A9_Gill.png)
In a letter from Renoir to Frédéric Bazille in September 1869, Renoir writes about his desperation for money: "I exhibited
he portraits ofLise and Sisley at Carpentier's. I am going to try to stick him for about 100 francs, and I'm going to put my woman in white up for auction. I'll sell it for whatever price it goes for; it's all the same to me." Renoir was unable to sell the painting.
In 1872,
Théodore Duret
Théodore Duret (20 January 1838, Saintes – 16 January 1927, Paris) was a French journalist, author and art critic. He was one of the first advocates of Courbet, Manet, and the Impressionists. One of his best known works is ''Critique d'Ava ...
(1834–1917), now known as "one of the earliest and most ardent defenders" of the Impressionists, met Renoir for the first time through
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...
(1834–1917). At the time, Duret was not impressed by Renoir's Bohemian approach. However, Degas praised Renoir's work, which encouraged Duret to seek out his paintings in local galleries. In March 1873, Duret purchased Renoir's ''
In Summer
"In Summer" is a song from Disney's 2013 animated feature film '' Frozen'', with music and lyrics composed by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.
Synopsis
The song is performed by Olaf (Josh Gad), and is a comedic and ironic ballad in wh ...
'' (1868) for 400 or 500
francs
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...
, possibly at an art gallery in Montmartre. Now interested in what Renoir had to offer, Duret went searching for the artist. Renoir told Duret that he was unable to pay rent for his studio and needed to quickly sell his paintings. Duret met with Renoir in his studio and chose to purchase ''Lise'', the painting Duret liked most, on the spot for 1,200 francs. Before Duret purchased ''Lise'', the canvas was sitting on the floor rolled up because Renoir was forced to sell the
stretcher bar. "Nobody wanted the canvas", wrote German art critic
Julius Meier-Graefe
, ro, Reșița), Resicabánya Dist., Krassó-Szörény Co, Bánság, Royal Hungary, Imperial and Royal Austria(now Romania)
, death_date =
, death_place = Vevey, VD, Switzerland
, nationality = German, Hungarian German ...
.
Duret later sold the painting to
Paul Durand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel (31 October 1831, Paris – 5 February 1922, Paris) was a French art dealer associated with the Impressionists and the Barbizon School. Being the first to support artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste ...
in Paris on June 5, 1890; German art dealer
Paul Cassirer
Paul Cassirer (21 February 1871, in Görlitz – 7 January 1926, in Berlin) was a German art dealer and editor who played a significant role in the promotion of the work of artists of the Berlin Secession and of French Impressionists and Post-Im ...
bought it on May 10, 1901. Later that month, on May 23,
Karl Ernst Osthaus
Karl Ernst Osthaus (15 April 1874, in Hagen – 25 March 1921, in Merano) was an important German patron of avant-garde art and architecture.
Life
Osthaus was born to a wealthy banking family, who also owned several businesses in the textile a ...
, a patron of the European avant-garde, paid 18,000
Goldmarks for ''Lise with a Parasol'' and brought it to his Folkwang Museum in
Hagen
Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...
, Germany. The painting was moved to
Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...
when the museum relocated in 1922 as the
Museum Folkwang
Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...
.
Related work
In May 1878, Duret published ''Les Peintres Impressionnistes'', one of the first historical works about the Impressionist movement. Renoir made a drawing of ''Lise with a Parasol'' for Duret's book and it was used as a
frontispiece; it is the only image of a painting from the Impressionist movement in the book.
A sister painting, ''
Portrait of Lise (Lise holding a bouquet of wild flowers)'' (1867), was completed around the same time as the larger ''Lise with a Parasol''. In both works, she appears in a forest wearing a similar dress and the same earrings, but in ''Portrait of Lise'' she wears a blue rather than a black sash.
[Christie's 2008.] House notes the thematic and narrative similarity between ''Lise with a Parasol'' and ''
La Promenade'' (1870), as the expectations of the waiting woman in ''Lise with a Parasol'' are fulfilled in ''La Promenade'', with the private, romantic rendezvous between lovers in the forest, a popular nineteenth century theme.
[House 1997, pp. 45-46; 57.] A later painting, ''
Woman with Parasol Seated in the Garden'' (1872), features Lise seated, modeling a similar dress with a red sash, hat, and parasol.
''Lise with a Parasol'' was the first of Renoir's paintings to feature a human figure with light filtering through plant leaves from above. Later works by Renoir that make use of this same style include ''
The Swing'' (1876) and ''
Bal du moulin de la Galette
''Bal du moulin de la Galette'' (commonly known as ''Dance at Le moulin de la Galette'') is an 1876 painting by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It is housed at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and is one of Impressionism's most celebrated masterpi ...
'' (1876).
[Duret 1910, p. 162-163.]
Notes and references
Notes
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Descriptionat the
Museum Folkwang
Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lise with a Parasol
Portraits by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Portraits of women
1867 paintings
Collection of the Museum Folkwang
category:19th-century portraits