Children on the Seashore, Guernsey
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
(French, 1841–1919)
about 1883
Country of Origin, for CustomsFrance
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas
Dimensions91.4 x 66.4 cm (36 x 26 1/8 in.)
Credit LineBequest of John T. Spaulding
Accession number48.594
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
On a bay ringed by cliffs, fashionable young Parisians enjoy the sun and sea. This scene was inspired by the beaches of Guernsey, an island in the English Channel where Renoir spent the summer of 1883 sketching. Although loosely defined (and unfinished at its right and upper edges), this picture wasn’t painted en plein air, outdoors on a Guernsey beach, but back in Renoir’s Paris studio, from studies he had made during his stay on the Channel.
InscriptionsStamped, lower right: RenoirProvenanceSold by the estate of the artist to the Galérie Barbazanges, Paris (stock no. 11756) [see note 1]; sold by Barbazanges to Howard Young Galleries, New York (stock no. 2020) [see note 2]; November 6, 1922, sold by Howard Young to John Taylor Spaulding (b. 1870 - d. 1948), Boston; 1948, bequest of John Taylor Spaulding to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 3, 1948)NOTES:
[1] According to a label on the reverse of the painting.
[2] According to a letter from Howard Young to Angelica Rudenstine of the MFA (December 8, 1961).
