Visiting the Frick Collection is the equivalent of sitting down with a friend over a pot of Earl Grey tea. It is a calming, civilized, and elegant experience and you depart with a renewed sense of faith in the beauty in the world.
By Mary Brennan Gerster
Visiting the Frick Collection is the equivalent of sitting down with a friend over a pot of Earl Grey tea. It is a calming, civilized, and elegant experience and you depart with a renewed sense of faith in the beauty in the world.
Currently hanging on the salmon mohair walls of the East Gallery, are nine of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s full-length figure paintings. An Impressionist by label he exhibited along with Monet, Degas, Pissarro, Cassatt, and Cezanne. We associate the term Impressionist with plein air painting, or painting outside directly from nature. However, many of the artists painted in studios from oil sketches and watercolors done on site as dictated by subject and weather. These works by Renoir are all studio paintings but display the loose brushstrokes and focus on the impact of light on color that define Impressionism.
This compact, enlightening exhibition spotlights Renoir and his exploration of painting the human figure in large-scale format. Most Impressionist works were smaller in dimension, making them more saleable for private homes and apartments.
Unlike many of his protégés, Renoir kept his feet in both the world of the official Salon exhibitions as well as the renegade Impressionist shows.
Two of six works he submitted to the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874 are in the Frick show. La Parisienne (1874) depicts a woman in a blue silk morning gown and hat. As with all of these works his attention to depicting the fashions that were current is more important than creating a specific portrait. This is understandable when you learn that his mother was a seamstress and his father a tailor.
The background is a blur of pastel-like color with a halo of a paler hue surrounding the figure. The model is Marie-Henriette Alphonse who he used in at least five of his full-length paintings. The dress is possibly a copy of a Worth, a brilliant designer of the time. During examination of the canvas it was discovered that Renoir had initially placed a doorway and column behind her but clearly eliminated them to focus solely on her and the beautiful cobalt blue dress. He offered the painting at 3,500 francs, an extraordinary amount, and it sold later that year for 1,200 francs.
The other entry from that exhibition is The Dancer (1874). It portrays a young ballerina, feet in Fifth position that rivals any Degas. She looks out at us with her gauzy tutu delicately lifted behind her.
Three canvases from 1883 — Dancer in the City, Dance at Bugival, and Dance in the Country — are reunited here on a single wall. These were created for a solo exhibition at dealer Durand-Ruel’s new gallery.
The most enchanting is Dance in the City. You can almost hear the music as this couple dance by the planted palms in the background. His face is obscured as he nestles it in her hair. Her dress is a froth of white with a low-cut back where his gloved hand rests just at her waist. Renoir’s attention to detail was such that he special ordered white gloves small enough for the hands of model and artist Suzanne Valadon.
Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (1870) portrays young acrobats Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg as they collect the oranges traditionally thrown in appreciation of their performance. One sister’s arms are full while the other stands behind her empty- handed. The canvas is awash with Naples yellow and an orange gold that glow. Behind the girls sit the well-dressed men in the best seats. They are just hinted at with a diagonal across the back right of the canvas that brings our eyes back to the central figures of the girls.
The accompanying catalogue is filled with Renoir paintings new to me as well as preparatory sketches and watercolors. The paintings hail from the Musee D’Orsay in Paris, London’s National Gallery (actually initially the Gallery in Dublin but that is a story in itself), the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Art Institute of Chicago, National Gallery in D.C, The National Museum of Wales, and the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, plus the Frick’s own La Promenade (1875-6). So you would have to travel far and wide to see all of these and they would not be in the context they are shown here.
The exhibit runs through May 13. The Frick Collection is located at 70th Street and Fifth Avenue. The museum is closed Mondays. On Sundays, pay as you will from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. You must purchase timed tickets for this event. Children under 10 are not admitted. For more information, visit frick.org or call 212-288-0700.
