Renoir Masterpiece Sells for €1.83 Million at Drouot

Offered for the first time at auction, L’enfant et ses jouets – Gabrielle et le fils de l’artiste, Jean sold for €1,832,800 to an international buyer, following an intense bidding competition.

Christophe Joron-Derem, auctioneer and founder of the house, commented: "The success of this extraordinary work is the culmination of a remarkable journey that took us from Louveciennes to the United States. Seeing this masterpiece emerge from obscurity and shine again at Drouot is a tremendous satisfaction."

Pascal Perrin, expert on the sale, added: "The discovery of this work after more than a century has put Renoir and Hôtel Drouot in the spotlight. Tonight's result is a testament to the extraordinary work, carried out in concert over several months with the Joron-Derem auction house.
 
 

Painted before 1910 and preserved within the same family since its creation, this work captures a tender maternal scene, offering a rare glimpse into the childhood of the future filmmaker Jean Renoir (1894–1979), director of La Grande Illusion, La Règle du jeu, and Partie de campagne.

Gabrielle Renard (1870–1959), nanny to the Renoir children, was also one of the artist’s favourite models, posing for nearly two hundred paintings. She entered the service of Aline Charigot, Renoir’s wife, at sixteen and cared for the family’s three sons for over twenty years, whom she regarded as a second mother.

The painting originally belonged to Jeanne Baudot (1877–1957), Renoir’s only student and close friend, who even hosted the artist’s studio in her Louveciennes property. In 1895, she became Jean Renoir’s godmother, alongside Georges Durand-Ruel.
Jeanne Baudot kept the painting until she bequeathed it to her spiritual son, Jean Griot, who served in General de Gaulle’s office during the war and later became director at Le Figaro until 1975. He lived in the Louveciennes house-studio, where Renoir had worked, preserving the painting and other works from Baudot’s collection.

Other highlights from the sale included Raoul Dufy’s oil on canvas L’atelier de la rue Jeanne-d’Arc, sold for €120,900 and pre-empted by the City of Perpignan. The market’s interest in Alix Aymé continues, with a high estimate nearly tripled for the pen-and-tempera nude Nu dans un intérieur, Hanoi, circa 1937, which sold for €331,500. Degas’ elegant dancers remain highly sought-after, with €182,000 achieved for the charcoal on paper Trois Danseuses.