Coco (Claude Renoir)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
(French, 1841–1919)
1910
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas
Dimensions55 x 46.4 cm (21 5/8 x 18 1/4 in.)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. George Putnam
Accession number1973.513
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
This painting represents Claude as a boy of nine. He wears regulation school shorts and the cropped, tousled haircut of an elementary school student. A child of Renoir’s old age; his growth is chronicled in the plump and rosy style of the artist’s late pictures.
InscriptionsStamped, lower left: RenoirProvenanceAfter the death of the artist in 1919, passed to his estate [see note 1]. January/February, 1934, Mr. R. L. [see note 2]. Paul Guillaume (b. 1891 - d. 1934), Paris; 1935, consigned by his widow, Domenica Guillaume (née Juliette Lacaze, b. 1898 - d. 1977), to the Valentine Gallery, New York (stock no. 1033C) [see note 3]; December, 1935, sold by Valentine Gallery to Katherine Harte (Mrs. George) Putnam (b. 1891 - d. 1986), Boston; 1973, gift of Mrs. George Putnam to the MFA. (Accession Date: October 10, 1973)NOTES:
[1] Published by Bernheim-Jeune, L'Atelier de Renoir, vol. 2 (Paris, 1931), pl. 121, cat. no. 376, among works of art from the artist's estate.
[2] Lent to the "Exposition d'Oeuvres des dix dernières années de Renoir" (Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Paris, January 16-February 24, 1934), cat. no. 7, as "Claude Renoir assis" from the collection of M. R. L[...].
[3] Many thanks to Julia May Boddewyn for providing the details of the transactions with Valentine Gallery.
