Rocky Crags at L'Estaque by Renoir in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, January 2018

Rocky Crags at L'Estaque

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919)

1882

Medium/Technique: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 66.4 x 81 cm (26 1/8 x 31 7/8 in.)

Credit Line: Juliana Cheney Edwards Collection

Accession Number: 39.678

Collections: Europe

Classifications: Paintings

Renoir passed through Provence on his return trip to France from Italy in January 1882, stopping at the fishing village of L’Estaque on the Mediterranean coast, where Cézanne had painted regularly since the 1860s. The landscapes Renoir composed there betray the depth of his admiration for Cézanne, whose more structured, architectonic treatment of rock Renoir emulates in this painting.

Inscriptions: Lower left: Renoir 82.

Provenance: 1891, probably sold by the artist to Durand-Ruel, Paris [see note 1]; transferred from Durand-Ruel, Paris to Durand-Ruel, New York (stock no. 193-1191); February 25, 1892, sold by Durand-Ruel, possibly to Catholina Lambert (b. 1834 - d. 1923), Patterson, NJ [see note 2]. By 1915, Robert J. Edwards (d. 1924), Boston [see note 3]; 1924, by inheritance to his sister, Hannah Marcy Edwards (d. 1929), Boston; 1929, by inheritance to her sister, Grace M. Edwards (d. 1938), Boston; 1939, bequest of Hannah Marcy Edwards to the MFA [see note 4]. (Accession Date: October 11, 1939)

NOTES:
[1] Information about the Durand-Ruel transactions is taken from a letter from Charles Durand-Ruel to Angelica Rudenstine of the MFA (February 20, 1962, in MFA curatorial file). Also see "Renoir" (exh. cat., Hayward Gallery, London, January 30 - April 21, 1985), p. 233, cat. no. 64, where it is suggested that Renoir deposited this painting as early as 1883 with Durand-Ruel, where it was exhibited it as "Campagne de L'Estaque."
[2] The letter from Durand-Ruel (as above, n. 1) states that the picture was sold to "Caroline Lambert," though it is possible that Mr. Catholina Lambert of Patterson, NJ, was intended. He was a significant collector of European paintings.
[3] According to notes in the MFA curatorial file, he lent the painting to the MFA in that year.
[4]Siblings Robert (d. 1924), Hannah (d. 1929), and Grace (d. 1938) Edwards were each collectors of art, who seemed to have had joint ownership of the objects in their possession. When Robert died, he bequeathed his collection to the MFA in memory of their mother, Juliana Cheney Edwards. In 1925, after his death, part of his collection was acquired by the Museum, and the remainder went to his sisters, with the understanding that the objects would ultimately be left to the MFA in the collection begun in memory of their mother. The collections of Hannah and Grace were left to the MFA in 1939, following Grace's death. It is not always possible to determine exactly which paintings each sibling had owned.

Text from: collections.mfa.org/objects/32705/rocky-crags-at-lestaque