Renoir's personal items to go up for auction in US

The single largest collection of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's personally-owned items, including the French artist's signature polka-dot scarf and letters by his contemporaries such as Claude Monet, is expected to fetch USD 3 million at an auction here.
The collection, which includes 143 lots, is set to be auctioned on September 19 in New York, by Heritage Auctions.
The items provide an intimate glimpse inside the personal and professional life of the French impressionist painter through a trove of important documents, including his marriage certificate, photographs and letters written to Renoir from friends and contemporaries such as Claude Monet, Edouard Manet and Auguste Rodin.

The collection also features a selection of original sculptural plaster maquettes created at Renoir's estate in Cagnes, France, in the twilight of his career.
Battling severe arthritis, Renoir collaborated with a young and able-handed artist, Richard Guino, at his dealer Ambroise Vollard's suggestion.
Together, Renoir and Guino selected which drawings and paintings would work as sculptures, and they set to work. Included among the sculptural offerings is likely the auction's top lot - a 72 inch tall original plaster maquette for La Grande Venus Victrix, the Roman goddess.

"This museum-level collection is superb in its completeness and reveals volumes about the man and his art. It touches every corner of his life and represents the last time this collection will appear assembled ever again," said Brian Roughton, Managing Director of Fine Art at Heritage Auctions.

"In addition to the personal letters and objects, we're also thrilled to have the opportunity to offer 20 carefully collected original plaster maquettes, not as vehicles to make bronzes but rather as individual works of art which stand on their own artistic merit," Roughton said.
Among the maquettes, Heritage is offering 'Coco', one of the only plaster maquettes that Renoir produced himself, depicting his young son Claude.
The archive also includes an American Medal of Honor awarded to Renoir in 1883, a sugar bowl thrown and painted with his son, Jean, at Les Collettes as Jean recuperated from First World War injuries at Les Collettes.

Other items to be auctioned include Renoir's spectacles, cigarette holder and personal financial documents along with number of personal and intimate letters from Renoir to Aline Charigot, who would become his wife and immortalised in a number of his most famous works.