Pont Neuf, Paris

1872

Auguste Renoir

Artist, French, 1841 - 1919

We look down on a few dozen people walking along the sidewalks of a wide, sunlit bridge in this almost square painting. The scene is loosely painted, which gives it a hazy, sun-dappled look and makes some details indistinct. The people wear black, white, light blue, or pale green jackets and pants or long dresses as they walk in all directions. Some wear hats, and a few women carry parasols. The bridge opens into a wide boulevard close to us, as the sidewalks angle into the lower corners of the composition. Several horse-drawn carriages move across the bridge alongside the people. The deck of the oyster-white bridge is lined with black gas lamps. The river beneath shimmers with lapis and turquoise blue. The far side is packed with four and five-story buildings, which are mostly tan with rows of windows painted as blue rectangles. The rooflines bristle with chimneys. Another structure or boat sits on the water near the lower right corner of the painting, and a flag with vertical bands of red, white, and blue flies from a flagpole there. Opposite the flag, on the far bank, is a statue of a man on a horse, both on a tall plinth. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, and the azure-blue sky above is dotted with puffy white clouds tinged with dove gray and mauve. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “A. Renoir. 72.”

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While his figure paintings are better known, Renoir's landscapes resonate with a vigor and freshness of vision central to the development of impressionism, most apparent here in his transcription of the effects of sunlight. Midday sun suffuses the panorama, its intensity heightening the artist's palette and suppressing incidental detail to clarify the crowded scene.

Edmond Renoir, the artist's younger brother and a novice journalist in 1872, later recounted the inception of this painting in an interview. He told how Renoir secured an owner's permission to occupy an upper floor of a café for one day to depict the view of the famous bridge. Edmond periodically delayed passersby long enough for the artist to record their appearance. Renoir even noted Edmond's presence, walking stick in hand and straw boater on his head, in two locations.

If, as Edmond indicated, Pont Neuf, Paris was painted during a single day, it was preceded by careful preparations, possibly including preliminary delineation of the permanent architectural features. The painting seems more richly nuanced and the subject laden with broader meaning than Edmond's anecdote would suggest. Painted in the wake of the Franco–Prussian War and ensuing civil strife that had devastated France in 1870 and 1871, Renoir's 1872 image shows a representative sampling of French citizenry crossing the oldest bridge in Paris, the intact heart of the recovering country.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 75.3 × 93.7 cm (29 5/8 × 36 7/8 in.)
    framed: 99.7 × 119.38 × 20.96 cm (39 1/4 × 47 × 8 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1970.17.58

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist; (his sale, Paris, 24 March 1875, no. 42); purchased by (Durand-Ruel, Paris); sold to Nicolas Auguste Hazard [1834-1913], Paris; (Hazard sale, Paris, 1 December 1919, no. 206); purchased by Georges Bernheim, Paris; sold 1921 to Ralph M. Coe, Cleveland; on joint account with (Carroll Carstairs, New York) and (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), by 1935;[1] acquired 1936 by Marshall Field [1893-1956], New York;[2] Dr. and Mrs. [née Barbara Field] Robert Boggs, New York; Mr. and Mrs. Peter Benziger [Mrs. Benziger was previously Mrs. Boggs]. (M. Knoedler and Co., London, New York, and Paris); sold December 1966 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969]; bequest 1970 to NGA.
[1] The painting was lent by Coe to a 1933 exhibition in Philadelphia, per an unnumbered checklist published in The Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin XXIX (December 1933): 19 and also exhibited at Carstairs Gallery, French Impressionists and After, December 1935-January 1936, no. 2. A copy of the catalogue in NGA curatorial files is annotated "Marshall Field."
[2] The acquisition by a "New York collector" was announced in Art News, 28 November 1936, p. 17. This is presumably Marshall Field, who lent the painting to exhibitions between 1937 and 1944.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1920

  • Tableaux, Pastels, Dessins par Renoir, Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, November-December 1920, no. 15.

1922

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1922-1924.

1924

  • Exhibition of Paintings: Edouard Manet, Pierre Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1924, no. 8.

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924-1925.

1925

  • Exhibition of Masterpieces by Renoir for the benefit of Hope Farm, Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, 1935, no. 25.

1929

  • Exhibition of French Painting of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1929, no. 76, repro.

1931

  • Loan to display with permanent collection, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1931-1933.

1933

  • Manet and Renoir, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1933, unnumbered checklist.

1935

  • French Impressionists and After, Carroll Carstairs, New York, December 1935 - January 1936, no. 2.

  • Masterpieces by Renoir, Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, 1935, no. 25.

1937

  • Renoir, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1937, no. 2, repro.

1938

  • Honderd Jaar Fransche Kunst, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1938, no. 201.

1940

  • Masterpieces of Art. European & American Paintings 1500-1900, New York World's Fair, 1940, no. 335, repro.

1941

  • Renoir: Centennial Loan Exhibition, Duveen Galleries, New York, 1941, no. 3, repro.

1943

  • From Paris to the Sea: Down the River Seine, Wildenstein Galleries, New York, 1943, no. 10.

1944

  • Paris: A Loan Exhibition, Coordinating Council of French Relief Societies, New York, December 1943 - Janaury 1944, no. 14, repro.

1954

  • Benefit for the North Shore Hospital, Country Art Gallery, Westbury, Long Island, 1954, unnumbered checklist.

1958

  • Loan Exhibition: Renoir for the Benefit of the Citizens' Committee for Children of New York City, Inc., Wildenstein, New York, 1958, no.4, repro.

1959

  • Masterpieces of Impressionist and Post Impresionst Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959, unnumbered cat., repro.

1966

  • Impressionist Treasures from Private Collections in New York, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1966, no. 29, repro.

1982

  • Manet and Modern Paris, National Gallery of Art, 1982-1983, no. 5, repro.

1985

  • Renoir, Hayward Gallery, London; Grand Palais, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1985-1986, no. 20 (French cat.), no. 21 (English cat.), repro.

1986

  • Capolavori Impressionisti dei Musei Americani, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, 1986-1987, no. 39, repro.

  • Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad; State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 1986, no. 27, repro.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990, no. 47, repro.

1999

  • Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no cat.

  • Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 32, repro.

2007

  • Renoir Landscapes 1865-1883, The National Gallery, London; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2007-2008, no. 12, repro., as The Pont Neuf (shown only in Philadelphia).

2011

  • Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The National Art Center, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, 2011, no. 42, repro.

Bibliography

1910

  • Duret, Théodore. Manet and the French Impressionists. Translated by J.E. Crawford Flitch. London and Philadelphia, 1910:164.

1925

  • Vollard, Ambroise. Renoir: An intimate Record. New York, 1925: 77, 237.

1929

  • Meier-Graefe, Julius. Renoir. Leipzig, 1929: repro. p. 48, no. 33.

1935

  • Barnes, Albert C. and Violette de Mazia. The Art of Renoir. New York, 1935: 50n-52, 200n, 383, 444, no. 26.

  • "Works by Renoir." The Connoisseur 95 (May 1935): 305-306, repro.

1936

  • "Art Throughout America: New York: A Famous Renoir Sold." Art News 35 (28 November 1936): 17.

1937

  • McBride, Henry. "The Renoirs in America: In Appreciation of the Metropolitan Museum's Exhibition," Art News 35, no. 31 (1 May 1937): 60.

1938

  • Florisoone, Michel. Renior. Paris, 1938: repro. 111.

1939

  • Venturi, Lionello. Les archives de l'impressionnisme. 2 vols. Paris and New York, 1939: I:32, II:334-338.

1940

  • Wilenski, R.H. Modern French Painters. New York, 1940:339.

1941

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Celebrating Renoir's Centenary: A Bright Galaxy." Art News 40, no. 15 (15 November 1940): 16, repro.

1943

  • "Artists Who Painted "Down the River Seine'." Art News 17, no. 9 (1 February 1943): 6, repro.

1944

  • Drucker, Michel. Renoir. New York, 1944: 150, 151,183.

  • Frost, Rosamund. Pierre Auguste Renoir. New York, 1944: 8, 42, repro.

1945

  • Rewald, John. "Auguste Renoir and His Brother." Gazette des Beaux-Arts VI, vol. 26, no. 3 (March 1945): 180-182, repro.

1946

  • Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. New York, 1946: 235 repro, 289.

1950

  • Pach, Walter. Pierre Auguste Renoir. New York, 1950:40, repro.

1952

  • Fox, Milton S. Renoir. New York, 1952: 3, repro pl. 5

  • Renoir, Jean. "My Memories of Renoir." _Life (19 May 1952): 92-93.

1953

  • Fox, Milton S. (text). Renoir. New York, 1953: repro plate 12.

1954

  • Rouart, Denis. Renoir. Geneva, 1954: 28, repro.

1958

  • Fox, Milton S. "Renoir in his Diversity." Arts XXXII, no. 7 (April 1958): 30.

1963

  • Neumann, Jaromir. Auguste Renoir. Prague, 1963:32, repro.

  • Gimpel, René. Journal d'un collectionneur, marchand de tableaux. Paris, 1963: 235.

1967

  • Walton, P.H. Renoir. New York, 1967: 22, repro. 13

  • Feist, Peter H. Auguste Renoir. Leipzig, 1967: 24, 39, 61, no. 10.

  • Pool, Phoebe. Impressionism. London, 1967:107, repro.

1968

  • Bodelsen, Merete. "Early Impressionist Sales 1874-94 in the light of some unpublished 'procès-verbaux'." The Burlington Magazine 110 (June 1968): 333, 335.

1969

  • White, Barbara Ehrlich. "Renoir’s Trip to Italy." The Art Bulletin 51 (December 1969): 334-335.

1970

  • Renior. Paris, Réalités Hachette, 1970: 104, repro.

1972

  • Fezzi, Elda. L'opera completa di Renoir nel period impressionista. Milan, 1972: no. 76.

  • Fox, Milton S. Pierre Auguste Renoir. New York, 1972: 14, repro.

1973

  • Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism, New York, 1973: 281,354, repro. 280

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 296, repro.

1978

  • Callen, Anthea. Renoir. London, 1978:47, repro.

1980

  • Thomas, David. Renoir. London, 1980: 7, repro.

  • Monneret, Sophie (intro). Guida alla pittura di Renoir. Milan, 1980:47-48, repro, no. 87.

  • Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism. New York, 1980: 130, 438, repro. p. 163.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 466, no. 682, color repro.

  • White, Barbara Ehrlich. Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters. New York, 1984: 40-44, 54-55, 285, repro.

  • A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape. Exh. cat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, 1984:122.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 342, repro.

  • Rouart, Denis. Renoir. Rev. ed., New York, 1985: 24, repro.

1989

  • Distel, Anne. Les collectionneurs des impressionnistes. Amateurs et marchands. Paris, 1989:175, repro.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum. Exh. cat. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990: no. 47, repro.

1991

  • Coman, Florence E. Joie de Vivre: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1991: no. 20, repro.

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 260, color repro.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 190, repro.

1995

  • Brettell, Richard R. Impressionist Paintings Drawings and Sculpture from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection. Dallas, 1995:47, repro.

  • Distel, Anne. Renoir A Sensuous Vision. New York, 1995:43, repro.

  • Boime, Albert. Art and the French Commune. Princeton, 1995: 117-119, 121, repro.

1996

  • Lurie, Patty. Guide to Impressionist Paris. Manchester, New Hampshire, 1996: 25-26.

  • Rathbone, Eliza E., et al. Impressionists on the Seine: A Celebration of Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party. Washington, 1996: 24, 54 n. 17, repro. 59.

  • Sagner-Düchting, Karin. Renoir: Paris and the Belle Epoque. Munich, 1996:repro. 28-29.

1997

  • Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism, 1997, no. 140, repro.

1999

  • Wood, Paul, ed. The Challenge of the Avant-Garde. New Haven, 1999: 120-121, repro.

2000

  • Thomson, Belinda. Impressionism: Origins, Practice, Reception. London, 2000: 28, repro.

2006

  • Søndergaard, Sidsel Maria. Women in Impressionism: From Mythical Feminine to Modern Woman. Exh. cat. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. Milan, 2006: 178, 179 fig. 147.

2007

  • Dauberville, Guy-Patrice, and Michel Dauberville. Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles. 5 vols. Paris, 2007: 1:no. 118.

Inscriptions

lower left: A. Renoir. 72.

Wikidata ID

Q3828409

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