Antoine-Eugène Renouard
(Cour-Cheverny 1835 – 1921 Paris)
Drawing from the Nude in a Paris Atelier, 1909
Charcoal
32.5 x 50.5 cm
Signed lower left "A. E. Renouard 1909"
PROVENANCE
Christie's, London, 15.12.2000, lot no. 179
Private collection, Switzerland
Renouard studied with Horace Vernet and Felix-Joseph Barrias, both specialists in historical subjects, exhibiting 1878 for the first time at the Salon. His portraits, landscapes and still lifes are found for the greater part in private collections, while paintings having as their subject the Franco-Prussian War are preserved in museums (Musée de Vendôme and Musée de la Guerre 1870 in Loigny-la-Bataille). Renouard represents here a scene with a wealth of details illustrating a session of drawing study from the life, in this case a male nude. Among the students all ages are represented, with a particular emphasis on female participants. At the lower right foreground, the viewer’s look is engaged by an older gentleman – most likely Renouard himself.
Not until 1896 did the Académie des Beaux-Arts accept female students, who in fact had long been welcomed in private academies such as the one richly depicted here.