Updated 07 March 2025
On Display Permanent collection
On Display
Madame Jean Renoir (Catherine Hessling)
| Date | c. 1923 |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | oil on canvas |
| Size（cm） | 90.4 x 75.2 |
| Inscriptions | Signed lower right: Derain |
| Credit Line | Donated by Ms. Eiko Yamamoto |
| Standard ref. | Kellermann 914 |
| Category | Paintings |
| Collection Number | P.1990-0008 |
This painting depicts the actress Catherine Hessling, wife of the film director Jean Renoir. Catherine Hessling was her stage name, while her real name was Andrée Madeleine Heuschling and she was known as "Dédée" to her close associates. Starting in 1915, she served as a model for Auguste Renoir, Jean's father, and she appears in many images of bathing from his final period. Jean first met Catherine at his father's villa "Les Collettes" and he married her after his father's death. She became an actress after her marriage, and acted in such roles as the lead in her husband's film Nana. Around that time Derain changed his dealer, from Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler to Paul Guillaume. The sales prowess of his new dealer, combined with active mention of Derain in the writings of Guillaume's friend the poet André Salmon, meant that Derain became a high-selling artist and attained a stable lifestyle, untroubled as he dedicated himself to painting. A number of landscape paintings, strongly influenced by Camille Corot, and portraits remain by Derain, all staged in a subdued palette in place of the harsh colors of the Fauvist palette. The nude, however, became his principal subject matter. These nudes were greatly inspired by the late works of Auguste Renoir. Derain is said to have exchanged this portrait for four small works by Renoir. Thus while it is hard to discern formal influence from Renoir in this work, the fact that the painting depicts Renoir's favored model makes it fascinating in terms of Derain's leanings towards Auguste Renoir. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.113)
Provenance
Paul Guillaume, Paris; Nicolas Mazaraki; Geneviève Gallibert; Auctioned at Palais Galliera, June 5 and 8, 1970, Paris; Palais Galliéra, no. 8 Portrait de Catherine Essling [sic.]; Private collection; Auctioned at Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., London, December 4, 1980, lot. no. 603, Portrait de Madame Jean Renoir; Private collection; Eiko Yamamoto (from a gallery in Tokyo), by whom donated to the NMWA in 1990.
Exhibition History
- 1929
- Derain, Galerie Paul Guillaume, 0 June 1929 - 0 June 1929
- 1994
- Kokuritsu Seiyo Bijyutsukan shozo sakuhin ni yoru yoroppa bijyutsu eno shotai, Karatsu City Library, 12 November 1994 - 11 December 1994, cat. no. 7, col. repr.
- 1997
- Expressiveness of Materials, National Museum of Art, Osaka, 17 April 1997 - 22 June 1997, cat. no. 51
- 2017
- [Traveling Exhibitions Presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2017] Muse: Women before the Artists' Eyes: From the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, 22 April 2017 - 2 July 2017, Akita Museum of Modern Art, 15 July-18 September, cat. no. 93
- 2018
- Renoir: Father and Son, Painting and Cinema, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, 6 May 2018 - 3 September 2018, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 5 November, 2018-27 January, 2019, cat. no. 39
Bibliography
- 1929
- George, Waldemar. La Grande peinture contemporaine à la collection Paul Guillaume. Paris, 1929, p. 92, repr.
- 1936
- Davidson, Martha. The Careful Vision of André Derain. The Art News. vol. 35, no. 7, November 14, 1936, p. 17, repr.
- 1992
- The French Modern Art, from The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (exh. cat.). The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, ed. Okinawa, Urasoe Art Museum, 1992, p. 40, cat. no. 30, col. repr
- 1994
- Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. Nos. 25-26 (April 1990-March 1992), 1994, List of New Acquisitions. p. 55
- 1994
- Kokuritsu Seiyo Bijutsukan Shozo Sakuhin ni Yoru Europa Bijutsu e no Shotai (exh. cat.). Karatsu City Library; National Museum of Wetsern Art. Karatsu, Karatsu City Library, 1994, cat. no. 7, col. repr.
- 1996
- Kellermann, Michel. André Derain: Catalogue Raisonné de l'œuvre peint. tome 2 1915-1934, Paris, 1996, cat. no. 914, repr.
- 1997
- Yukiyama, Koji. Zephyros. The National Museum of Western Art news letter, Tokyo, Oct. 1997, no. 2, repr.
- 1998
- Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. 3rd. imp., Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1998 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), Cat. no. 116 《Madame Jean Renoir (Catherine Hessling)》, repr. col.
- 2004
- Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. 3rd. imp., Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1998 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), Cat. no. 116 《Madame Jean Renoir (Catherine Hessling)》, repr. col.
- 2006
- Tanaka, Masayuki. Study report on André Derain's portrait of Mme. Jean Renoir (Catherine Hessling). Journal of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. no. 10, 2006, pp. 6-24, repr. [with English Abstract]
- 2009
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 113, col. repr.
- 2017
- Muse: Women before the Artists' Eyes: from the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Traveling Exhibitions Presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2017 (exh. cat.). Nakada, Asuka, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2017, pp. 120, 142, cat. no. 93, col. repr.
- 2018
- Renoir: Father and Son / Painting and Cinema(exh. cat.). Philadelphia, The Barnes Foundation; Paris, Musée d'Orsay; Paris, Flammarion, Barcelona, Indice, 2018, cat. no. 39, col. repr.