VENERDÌ 17 OTTOBRE 2025 
This Week in La Gazette Drouot : An Impressionist family painting by Auguste Renoir
S oon to go on sale, the third, previously unseen version of a portrait by Auguste Renoir of his son Jean and his nanny is set to tell many a family story.
By Henri Guette
Read the full version of "Jean Renoir on his nurse's lap, an Impressionist family painting by Auguste Renoir" in La Gazette Drouot
This rare scene from filmmaker Jean Renoir's childhood, painted by his father, has remained in the same family since it was executed before 1910. It belonged to little Jean's godmother, Jeanne Baudot (1877-1957), who bequeathed it to her adopted son and godson-in-law, Jean Griot (1921-2011).
A key figure in the Free French cause and a member of General de Gaulle's cabinet during the war, he was close to the Rouart family and later joined Le Figaro, rising through the ranks to become its director. Our painting remained in his family. The first charcoal drawing of the motif, listed as 2532 in the catalog raisonné of Guy-Patrice and Michel Dauberville, now at the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), reveals a composition focused on the models, Jean and Gabrielle Renard.
The modeling focuses on the nanny's body as she embraces the child's, as well as on the faces, while the toys are barely sketched in and the scenery is barely hatched. This is the composition found in the painting now in the Orangerie, which came from the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume collection and is listed in the catalog raisonné under no. 2057. The figures are barely discernible, while the flower-printed canvas - used as a background motif - allows the figures to stand out more clearly.
Auguste Renoir seems particularly attached to this composition, which can also be seen at the same time in Gabrielle, Jean and a Little Girl, a painting with a similar subject, where the doorway, the printed canvas and the table in the foreground sketch out the same décor. Only the presence of the little girl, the apple she's holding out and Jean's movement introduce another dynamic.
Read the full version of "Jean Renoir on his nurse's lap, an Impressionist family painting by Auguste Renoir" in La Gazette Drouot
This rare scene from filmmaker Jean Renoir's childhood, painted by his father, has remained in the same family since it was executed before 1910. It belonged to little Jean's godmother, Jeanne Baudot (1877-1957), who bequeathed it to her adopted son and godson-in-law, Jean Griot (1921-2011).
A key figure in the Free French cause and a member of General de Gaulle's cabinet during the war, he was close to the Rouart family and later joined Le Figaro, rising through the ranks to become its director. Our painting remained in his family. The first charcoal drawing of the motif, listed as 2532 in the catalog raisonné of Guy-Patrice and Michel Dauberville, now at the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), reveals a composition focused on the models, Jean and Gabrielle Renard.
The modeling focuses on the nanny's body as she embraces the child's, as well as on the faces, while the toys are barely sketched in and the scenery is barely hatched. This is the composition found in the painting now in the Orangerie, which came from the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume collection and is listed in the catalog raisonné under no. 2057. The figures are barely discernible, while the flower-printed canvas - used as a background motif - allows the figures to stand out more clearly.
Auguste Renoir seems particularly attached to this composition, which can also be seen at the same time in Gabrielle, Jean and a Little Girl, a painting with a similar subject, where the doorway, the printed canvas and the table in the foreground sketch out the same décor. Only the presence of the little girl, the apple she's holding out and Jean's movement introduce another dynamic.
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