Brief Report

In this small painting, Renoir gives us a view in cheerful colours of the little town of Villeneuve-les- Avignon in the south of France (figs 1, 7). The predominantly translucent and mostly wet-in-wet paint applications on a pale, presumably commercially pre-primed canvas give the painting a very soft, almost feathery appearance. The artist probably used hair brushes to apply the paints. This working method is to be seen time and again in Renoir’s oeuvre from shortly after 1875 already, and is also evident in the portrait of his son Jean, painted around 1900, and likewise in the possession of the Wallraf [WRM Dep. FC 680]. Numerous clues speak in favour of an authentic revision of the painting by the artist himself following an early lining. Thus on the peripheries there are extensive revisions which can be proved to have been carried out only after the lining procedure, namely by the fact that there are paint applications on top of an all-round paper covering stuck on in the course of the lining measure (figs 9, 10). The manner of the additions and the composition of the paint suggest that Renoir was responsible. Although the provenance of the present painting is unclear, and it is questionable whether it was ever in the possession of Durand- Ruel, Renoir’s dealer from the 1880s onwards, the correspondence between the two men is nonetheless a revealing written source regarding the practice and background of early linings of Renoir’s paintings. Thus on 27 November 1912 Durand-Ruel wrote to Renoir from Paris that “[...] canvases which I have collected from you are on stretchers. In line with your advice, they have been lined à l‘italienne [this presumably means the lining canvas was stuck with paste] and cropped to the extent that there is nothing to cover around the edge. Even so, there are gaps in the corners of some paintings. Albert André has told me that I should rub them with a coloured rag, as this would make your retouching easier, since you don’t like working on an unprimed canvas. I would like to send you these two small paintings. You can inspect and sign them in two hours, as there is almost nothing to do.“ [Renoir 1995, vol. 2, p. 89]. We may therefore presume that Renoir painted this picture, like many others in the late 1890s, on pre-primed canvases cut from the roll [Renoir 1995, Renoir 1931, Burnstock et al. 2005, Renoir 1962]. Often indeed we find several independent studies on one piece of canvas [cf. Renoir 1931, plates 31, 69, 72, 87]. Lining, in these situations, evidently functioned as an aid to stretching, and to getting the painting into a state in which it could be exhibited or sold. Possibly in this case it was Durand-Ruel who had the work cropped, lined and stretched with a view to returning it to the artist for reworking the periphery, and maybe also the signature (figs 5, 9). A particularly conspicuous early- shrinkage craquelure, areas where the paint has been squashed, along with traces of paint that have pushed up through the network of cracks may all be evidence of this early intervention before the painting was completely dry (figs 11, 12).

Auguste Renoir
Villeneuve-les-Avignon, 1901, Oil on canvas, 33 x 53,5 cm, WRM Dep. FC 791

Auguste Renoir

born on 25 February 1841 in Limoges,
died on 3 December 1919 in Cagnes

Brief report with complete data as downloadable pdf-file

Further illustrations:

Fig. 02

Verso, lined


Fig. 03

Raking light


Fig. 04

UV fluorescence


Fig. 05

Detail, signature in incident light and under UV stimulation (bottom), later revision in black paint is discernible under the microscope (arrows), microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 06

Detail, orange-pink pentimento is visible (arrows)


Fig. 07

Detail, view of town


Fig. 08

Use of black, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 09

Detail, top edge, shows original edge of painting (arrows) with subsequent revisions by the artist


Fig. 10

Details, top edge in incident light and under UV stimulation  (bottom); the painted revision of the peripheral regions was carried out after the canvas was lined and the edges taped over (arrows)


Fig. 11

Paint or ground which has penetrated from underlying layers   through the network of early shrinkage cracks, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 12

In places, the lining procedure squeezed, tore open, or even shifted the paint and ground layers (arrows), microscopic  photograph (M = 1 mm)