Renoir Painting Missing for a Century Sells in Paris for $2 M.

"The painting, titled L'enfant et ses jouets - Gabrielle et le files de l'artiste, Jean (The Child and His Toys - Gabrielle and the son's artist, Jean), depicts Renoir's young son Jean playing with his nursemaid Gabrielle, the scene captured with palpable warmth. Created roughly around 1910, had never been published or exhibited, yet came to auction in remarkably good condition, requiring no restoration work."

"The painting's whereabouts remained a mystery until only recently. Renoir had originally gifted it to his pupil and close friend Jeanne Baudot, who became his son Jean's godmother in 1895. She kept the work until her death, after which L'enfant et ses jouets passed to her adopted son and heir, Jean Griot. He hung the painting in his bedroom, where it stayed until his own passing in 2011."

"In interviews, Jean Renoir, who would go on to become a feted film director, recalled tenderly his experiences being painted by the famed French Impressionist. 'When I was very small, three, four or five years old, he didn't choose the pose himself, but took advantage of some activity that seemed to keep me quiet,' he said. Jean died in 1979."

A Renoir painting titled L'enfant et ses jouets depicting his young son Jean with nursemaid Gabrielle, created around 1910, resurfaced and sold for about €1.8 million (approximately $2 million) at a Tableaux Modernes sale at Hôtel Drouot in Paris on November 25. The work had never been published or exhibited and required no restoration. Joron-Derem offered the painting, which achieved a hammer price of €1.45 million before buyer's fees. Provenance traces to Jeanne Baudot, Renoir's pupil and Jean's godmother, then to her heir Jean Griot. Related studies from 1895–96 appear in major museum collections, and Jean Renoir later recalled being painted as a child.

Read at ARTnews.com