The Artist's Son, Jean, Drawing (Primary Title)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French, 1841 - 1919 (Artist)
The simplified palette of this portrait of Renoir’s second son, Jean, is limited to a range of grays and browns. The composition’s shallow depth of focus and symmetry draws the viewer’s eye into the space of the young boy’s creative effort. Renoir’s affectionate representation of his son’s simple and innocent activity pays tribute to 18th-century genre scenes, particularly the portraits of children made by French artist Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin (1699-1779).
Jean Renoir would grow up to become a groundbreaking international filmmaker with a career that spanned the silent era into the late 1960s. As an adult, he recounted the circumstances behind the creation of this particular work: "I was myself exactly seven when the painting was done. I had caught a cold and could not go to school, and my father took the opportunity to use me as a model. To keep me quiet, he suggested that a pencil and piece of paper should be given to me and he convinced me to draw figures of animals while he himself was drawing me.”
2019-2020: "Van Gogh Monet Degas, The Mellon Collection of French Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts", Palazzo Zabarella, Padua, Italy, October 26, 2019 - March 1, 2020
2019-2021: Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, and Their Times: The Mellon Collection of French Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, February 2 - May 5, 2019; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS, April 4, 2020 - January 10, 2021
2018-2019: "Van Gogh, Monet, Degas: The Mellon Collection of French Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts", The Frick Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, March 17 - July 15, 2018; Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, June 22 - September 22, 2019
“Late Renoir,” Grand Palais, Paris, Sept. 23, 2009-Jan. 4, 2010; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Feb. 14-May 9, 2010; Philadelphia Museum of Art, June 17-Sept. 5, 2010
“Inspiring Impressionism: Impressionists and the Art of the Past,” High Museum, Atlanta, GA, Oct. 13, 2007-Jan. 13, 2008; Denver Art Museum, Feb. 23-May 25, 2008; Seattle Art Museum, June 19-Sept. 21, 2008
“Renoir’s Portraits: Impressions of an Age,” National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June 27-Sept. 14, 1997; Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 14, 1997-Jan. 4, 1998; Kimbell Art Museum, Feb. 8-April 26, 1998.
“Renoir Retrospective,” Nagoya City Art Museum, Oct. 15-Dec. 11, 1988; Hiroshima Museum of Art, Dec. 17, 1988-Feb. 12, 1989; Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, Feb. 18-April 9, 1989
“French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce,” National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, March 17-May 1, 1966
“Twelve Portraits: Delacroix to Gauguin,” Artmobile exhibition, Sept. 22-Oct. 16, 1962
“Renoir,” Arts Council Exhibit, Tate Gallery, London, 1953, No. 46a
Edinburgh Festival, 1953
Paris, 1912, no. 17.
Curator’s Talk: The Reinstallation of the Mellon Collection
1:14:33The collection of European paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts given by Paul and Rachel Mellon constitute an essential facet of the museum’s identity. Dr. Sylvain Cordier, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art, discusses the reinstallation of the Mellon Collection.
Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.
