Pierre-Auguste Renoir

In Path in the Forest, painted between 1874 and 1877, Pierre-Auguste Renoir used a pictorial formula closely related to Shaded Path of 1872. Here, too, a path overhung with trees functions as a central visual axis, an aisle leading to the center of the pictorial space. Now, however, darker tonalities are exchanged for the glowing palette of Renoir’s mature Impressionist style: fresh nuances of bright green and blue are punctuated by daubs of pure white, evoking the impression of luminous flecks of sunlight on the lush foliage. The course of the narrow forest path is marked only by a single figure, who blends almost seamlessly into the surrounding vegetation; only the red accents at the figure’s feet attract the viewer’s gaze.

Here, as in many Impressionist paintings, the forest path does more than merely draw the eye into a compositional space. Rather, it symbolically invites the viewer to engage in contemplation of a summer day under the open sky. The young figure strolling through the landscape serves as a metaphorical proxy for the viewer—an approach typical of the Impressionists, who continually sought to elicit a sensual, bodily response in their representations of the landscape. This symbolic fusion of humanity and nature appears in similarly programmatic fashion in another painting by Renoir that is closely related in style: Woman with a Parasol in a Garden (1875), now in the collection of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.

Daniel Zamani

Auguste Renoir, Galerie Paul Cassirer, Berlin, October 28, 1901–January 27, 1902, no. 13 (Waldweg)

Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cézanne, Großherzogliches Museum für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe, Weimar, March 1904

Paysages par Cl. Monet et Renoir, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, May 1–June 30, 1908, no. 55

Mostra retrospettiva di Auguste Renoir, XXI Biennale Internazionale d’Arte, Französischer Pavillion, Venice, 1938, no. 15 (Nel bosco)

De l'impressionnisme à l'école de Paris, Musée de l'Athénée, Geneva, July 16–September 29, 1960, no. 70

Chefs-d'œuvre des collections suisses de Manet à Picasso, Palais de Beaulieu, Lausanne, May 1–October 25, 1964, no. 57

Chefs-d'œuvre des collections suisses de Manet à Picasso, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, 1967, no. 53

Impressionism: The Hasso Plattner Collection, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, from September 5, 2020

Renoir. The Painter and His Models, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, September 22, 2023–January 7, 2024

August 25, 1891, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, probably purchased from the artist
January 10, 1910, Alphonse Kann, Paris, acquired from the above
n.d., Alfred Savoir, Paris
1934, Mme Alfred Savoir, Paris, inherited from the above
1960, Jean-Claude Savoir, Coppet, Switzerland, inherited from the above
December 2, 1986, Sotheby’s, London, lot 25
n.d., Heinz Berggruen, Paris
n.d., Acquavella Galleries, New York, acquired from the above
April 27, 1987, Private collection, USA, acquired from the above
February 27, 2019, Christie’s, London, lot 8, consigned by the above

Chefs-d'œuvre des collections suisses de Manet à Picasso, exh. cat. Palais de Beaulieu, Lausanne 1964, no. 57.

Chefs-d'œuvre des collections suisses de Manet à Picasso, exh. cat. Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris 1967, no. 53.

Elda Fezzi, L'opera completa di Renoir nel periodo impressionista. 1869–1883, Milan 1972, no. 120, p. 95.

Elda Fezzi, Tout l'œuvre peint de Renoir, période impressionniste 1869–1883, Paris 1985, no. 115, p. 94.

Denis Rouart, Renoir, Paris 1985, p. 33.

Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. 1, Paris 2007, no. 87, p. 165, ill. p. 165.

Gilles Neret, Renoir: Painter of Happiness, Cologne 2009, p. 68, ill. p. 69.

Bernhard Echte and Walter Feilchenfeldt (ed.), Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer: Die Ausstellungen 1901–1905, vol. 2, Wädenswil 2011, ill. p. 45.

Renoir. The Painter and His Models, exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest 2023, no. 14, p. 168, ill. p. 169.