Art Eyewitness Review: Renoir Drawings at the Morgan Library & Museum

 

  Renoir Drawings

The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City

October 12, 2025- February 8, 2026  

Musee d'Orsay, Paris / March 17-July 5, 2026 

Reviewed by Ed Voves

December 31, 1917, the old year passed, marking the end of one of the worst years in modern history. 1918 would be even more terrible. The final year of World War I and the outbreak of the Influenza Pandemic would sweep away the decaying European empires and consume millions of lives.

In the seaside town of Cagnes-sur-Mer in the south of France, a semblance of civility remained. There Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, lived and worked. That day, Renoir welcomed a younger artist to his home, a revolutionary whose paintings had little in common with Renoir's: Henri Matisse.

Renoir and Matisse quickly warmed to each other. Despite the radical difference in their painting styles, they did have one great, shared passion: a devotion to drawing.

Matisse, of course, is one of the supreme draftsmen in art history. But Renoir?

          

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

Gallery view of the Renoir Drawings exhibition

 at the Morgan Library & Museum

A masterful exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum, now in its final weeks before traveling to the Musee d’Orsay, has launched a major reappraisal of Renoir. An artist famous for his Impressionist paintings and notorious for his late-life nudes, the Renoir of the Morgan exhibit is a master of pencil and pen, chalk and pastel.

Amazingly, the Morgan exhibition is the first major survey of Renoir drawings since 1921. That bygone exhibit, mounted by the Durand Ruel Gallery, occurred a mere three years after Renoir's death. Since then, when critical attention focused on Renoir's works on paper, these were chiefly studied as preliminary steps in the creation of his oil paintings.

Renoir Drawings consists of much more than preparatory sketches for major paintings - although the keystone of the exhibition is indeed such a work. Over one hundred drawings, pastels, watercolors and colored lithographs are displayed. Several oil paintings are also on view, as is a 1915 film clip of the aged, crippled Renoir at work. 

A film/video clip of Renoir at work in 1915, shown in the lobby of

 the Renoir Drawings exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum

To grasp the importance of drawing for Renoir, a good place to start is the portrait of Julie Manet (1878-1966). She was the daughter of Renoir's close friend and fellow Impressionist, Berthe Morisot, who commissioned the work.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Child with a Cat or Julie Manet, 1887

Painted in 1887, the portrait of Julie Manet has many - but not all - of the hallmarks of Impressionist technique. Background details are applied to represent the setting without distracting the eye with a roomful of precisely rendered furnishings. Fluid brushstrokes evoke the girl's dress, giving a sense of the flowing gown which clothes her body.

Fundamental attention is devoted to Julie's face, composed with the soulful, almost pleading, look of a child trying not to squirm like the cat she holds. This facial composition marks a departure from earlier Renoir portraits. Here, as the Morgan curators note, "The strong, sharply defined contours of her face in both the sketch and the painting exemplify Renoir’s new emphasis on line and clarity in his work."

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

Renoir‘s Study for "Child with a Cat" or Julie Manet, ca. 1887

The preparatory drawing, one of five executed by Renoir, presents Julie in a more frontally-aligned pose than the finished portrait. Most of the details of dress, hand and cat are roughly sketched. But the new "sharply defined" features of Julie's face (of which Morisot highly approved) are very much present.

When closely examined, Renoir's drawings confirm that they were foundational to his art. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

Gallery view of the Renoir Drawings exhibition,

 showing student work by Renoir, dating to the 1860's.

Like most aspiring artists in 19th century France, the young Renoir honed his skill by copying plaster casts of classical statues. The Morgan exhibition displays a number of these student efforts. Rather unremarkable in themselves, these academic drawings show that Renoir was well-grounded in the basics.

Renoir had little need to resort to his academic training during from the crucial Impressionist years of the 1870's and early 80's. Painting landscapes en plein air was the primary focus of Renoir's work during those years and did not call for preliminary drawings. 

When sales of his Impressionist landscapes lagged, Renoir resorted to portrait painting. Drawing, in consequence, assumed greater importance in his oeuvre.

Renoir's return to drawing, however, was much more than a matter of cash flow. According to Colin Bailey, the director of the Morgan and lead curator of this splendid exhibition, Renoir confronted a "moment of truth" in his artistic career. Bailey writes:

It was Renoir’s so-called “crisis of Impressionism” of the mid-1880s and his paintings of "Motherhood and "The Great Bathers" that led him to reevaluate the role of drawing and its various functions and formats. From then on, drawings in all techniques—as well as reproductive media, from etching and drypoint to color lithography — would remain an integral part of Renoir’s output. 

Among the "various functions and formats"  in Renoir's drawing repertoire was one which, ironically, he found disagreeable to use. Yet, he became one of the great modern masters of this medium: pastel.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Boating Couple, 1880–1881

Pastel art had been highly-regarded during the 18th century. As a young boy, Renoir had been trained as an apprentice painter of the celebrated Limoges porcelain ware. He became especially proficient decorating cups with images of Marie Antoinette. It was the beginning of Renoir's life-long love affair of the 18th century which likely influenced his use of pastels.

In a practical sense, as well, pastels had much to offer Renoir. These drawings (some called them paintings) shared in the immediacy and appeal of Impressionist paintings. And they could be executed quickly. This was no small matter, as many of Renoir's commissions were for portraits of young children and adolescents.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

Gallery view of the Renoir Drawings exhibition,

 showing a selection of pastel portraits by Renoir

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

Renoir's portrait of Madeleine Adam at Fourteen, 1887

If using pastels facilitated capturing the features of restive children and moody teenagers, the same was true for reclusive, temperamental painters from Aix-en-Provence! 

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

 Renoir's Paul Cezanne, 1880

The pastel portrait of Paul Cezanne, dating to 1880, is one of the standout works of Renoir Drawings.This perceptive and empathetic likeness of Cezanne also calls to mind the 2021 MOMA survey of Cezanne's drawings. The Morgan and MOMA exhibitions complement each other brilliantly in the way that they underscore the importance of drawing for two Impressionist masters more famous for their paintings.

The drawings by Renoir and Cezanne share two salient features. 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Seated Nude Seen from the Back, 1885–87

Firstly, there is not one sketch or study in the Renoir exhibit which can be labeled as hasty or "slapdash." The same was true for the 2021 MOMA display of Cezanne's drawings. 

Whether intended as preparation for a painting-in-progress or a unique, highly-finished work like Renoir's beautiful nude, executed with red chalk (above), a drawing by either of these artists is a "masterclass" in creative expression.

The attention and skill which Renoir devoted to his works on paper is apparent by contrasting a pastel and a drawing in red chalk, on view in the Morgan exhibition, with an oil painting from the collection of the Philadelphia Art Museum. 

                                  

Portrait of Mademoiselle Legrand, which Renoir painted in 1875, does not appear in the Morgan exhibition. Yet, it is so close in subject and spirit to the pastel portrait of Elizabeth Maitre (1879) and Head of a Young Girl (ca. 1900) that it makes for perfect comparison with Renoir's drawings. Viewing these three works by Renoir, it is clear that each is a masterpiece in its own, unique artistic medium.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

 Renoir's Head of a Young Girl, ca. 1900

 

At the bottom of the red chalk portrait, two small-scale preliminary sketches can be seen. Renoir frequently included multiple images in a drawing. Some times these were subsidiary to the main subject being depicted; on other occasions, a number of unrelated subjects were depicted on a single sheet of paper. In doing so, Renoir followed in the artistic footsteps of Rembrandt and Watteau, a practice which Cezanne did as well.

I find such sketch sheets with their multiple images to be immensely appealing. These are akin to photo "snapshots" which document the creative process and provide insight into the artist's mind as vision is translated into imagery. As an added bonus, drawings like Study for "Dance in the Country" are a joy to behold, as compelling - or almost so - as the finished painting.

.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Study for "Dance in the Country", 1883

The free-wheeling spontaneity which characterizes Study for "Dance in the Country" was notably absent from Renoir's arduous and exacting effort to paint a masterpiece in the grand tradition of classic French art: The Great Bathers. 

Between 1885 to 1887, Renoir methodically executed twenty drawings in preparation for a major painting which he stated "shall knock Raphael off his pedestal." This boast was characteristic of Renoir's  risk-taking approach to art. But he almost had to eat his words. A first attempt at painting The Great Bathers failed and had to be abandoned.

Renoir put down his brushes, grasped sticks of red and black chalk and started drawing. 

Drawing and redrawing and drawing again ... until The Bathers, the frolicking young women whom art critic Louis Vauxcelles called Renoir's Venuses, came to life and were ready to be painted.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

Gallery view of the Renoir Drawings exhibit, showing

  draft compositions for The Great Bathers, ca. 1885-1886

In 2018, a generous benefactor gave one of these impressive drawings to the Morgan Library's collection. On display with six (out of twenty) of Renoir's other "prep" drawings, the Morgan's Study for The Great Bathers is the foundational work of the entire exhibition.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

 Renoir's oil-on-canvas, The Great Bathers, ca. 1886–87

Such high praise might seem excessive, given that The Great Bathers, on loan from the Philadelphia Art Museum, is also on view. But the more that you compare the preparatory drawing with the finished painting, one realizes that the genius of Renoir was realized as much by the creative process of The Great Bathers as in the completed oil-on-canvas.

Renoir did not, in fact, dethrone Raphael from his pedestal with The Great Bathers. But he did create a body of drawings which could favorably stand comparison with the work of Jean Auguste Ingres. For a French artist of the 19th century, there could be no greater praise.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Study for "The Great Bathers", ca. 1886-1887

It must be acknowledged that the drawings of nude women for The Great Bathers set Renoir on the course of painting the many nudes of his late career. Speaking on the subject, while working on The Great Bathers, Renoir explained to Berthe Morisot that the nude was "one of the essential forms of art."

What now may seem obsessive was certainly not viewed as such during Renoir's lifetime. Leading cultural figures like the poet Stéphane Mallarmé praised Renoir's nudes as expressions of the vitality of life. Artists of the succeeding generation, Bonnard, Picasso and Matisse were convinced believers in Renoir's genius. Picasso later purchased a Renoir nude, Bather Seated in a Landscape, now in the collection of the Picasso Museum in Paris.

It is important to emphasize that the aged Renoir, wracked with pain, was fixated on the beauty of life. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

Gallery view of Renoir Drawings, showing a sketch in black chalk of Gabrielle and Jean, ca. 1895, and the finished painting, 1895-96

In his later years, Renoir drew and painted his family as they experienced the joys of life, as well as plump, handsome young women, exuding beauty. 

"The pain passes", Renoir exclaimed to Matisse, during one of their moments of comradeship in the dark days of the Great War, "but the beauty remains."

Detail of Renoir's Gabrielle and Jean, 1895-1896.

At the Morgan Library exhibition, soon to head to the Musee d’Orsay, Renoir's vision of beauty still lives.

***

Text and original photos: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved 

Introductory Image: Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Market Women with a Basket, ca.1888. Red and black chalk on paper:Sheet: 16 5/8 × 12 3/8 in. (42.3 × 31.5 cm) Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Gallery view of Renoir Drawing at the Morgan Library and Museum.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Gallery view of Renoir Drawing at the Morgan Library and Museum, showing a film/video of Renoir in 1915.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) Child with a Cat or Julie Manet, 1887. Oil on canvas: 25 13/16 × 21 1/16 in. (65.5 × 53.5 cm) Musée d'Orsay

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Renoir‘s Study for "Child with a Cat" or Julie Manet, ca. 1887. Charcoal and pencil on blue paper:Sheet: 24 7/16 × 18 1/2 in. (62 × 47 cm). Private collection.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Gallery view of Renoir's drawings at the Morgan Library and Museum, showing student work by Renoi, dating to the 1860's.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) Boating Couple, 1880–1881. Pastel on paper.Sheet: 17 3/4 × 23 in. (45.1 × 58.4 cm) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Gallery view of Renoir Drawing at the Morgan Library and Museum, showing pastels by Renoir.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Renoir's portrait of Madeleine Adam at Fourteen, 1887. Pastel and graphite on paper: Sheet: 23 5/8 × 18 7/8 in. (60 × 48 cm) Collection of Diane B. Wilsey

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Renoir's Paul Cezanne, 1880. Pastel on paper: Sheet: 20 3/4 × 16 3/4 in. (52.7 × 42.5 cm) Private collection.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) Seated Nude Seen from the Back, ca. 1885–87. Red and white chalk on paper mounted to board: 15 1/4 × 11 7/8 in. (38.7 × 30.2 cm) Collection of George Condo. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Three Renoir portraits, from left, Portrait of a Young Girl (Elisabeth Maître), 1879, pastel on paper, The Albertina Museum, Vienna; Head of a Young Girl, ca. 1900, Red chalk on paper: Sheet: 18 5/16 × 12 5/16 in. (46.5 × 31.3 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art; Portrait of Mademoiselle Legrand, 1875, Oil on canvas, 32 x 23 1/2 inches (81.3 x 59.7 cm.) Philadelphia Art Museum.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Renoir's Head of a Young Girl, ca. 1900. (See citation above).

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) Study for "Dance in the Country",1883. Brush and brown, blue, and black wash over black chalk or graphite on paper: sheet: 19 1/2 × 12 in. (49.5 × 30.5 cm) Yale University Art Gallery.

 Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Gallery view of Renoir Drawings at the Morgan Library and Museum, showing draft compositions for The Great Bathers,ca. 1885-1886.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Renoir's The Great Bathers, ca. 1886 – 87. Oil on canvas: 46 3/8 × 67 1/4 in. (117.8 × 170.8 cm) Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) Study for "The Great Bathers", ca. 1886-1887 and 1908. Red and white chalk, with smudging and blending on wove paper, lined to canvas. Sheet: 43 1/2 × 57 in. (110.49 × 144.78 cm) Bequest of Drue Heinz, Morgan Library and Museum.

 Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Gallery view of Renoir Drawing at the Morgan Library showing (from left) Renoir's Gabrielle and Jean, ca. 1895. Black chalk on paper: sheet: 24 7/16 × 18 9/16 in. (62 × 47.2 cm) National Gallery of Canada and Renoir's Gabrielle and Jean, 1895-96. Oil on canvas: 25 9/16 × 21 1/4 in. (65 × 54 cm) Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) detail of Renoir's painting, Gabrielle and Jean (see above). 

Art Eyewitness Essay: "Mirror of the Soul", Reflections on the Paris to Provence exhibit at the Barnes Foundation

 

"Mirror of the Soul"
     Reflections on the Barnes Foundation's Paris to Provence Exhibition

Text by Ed Voves

Original Photography by Anne Lloyd

In a December 1885 letter to his brother, Theo, Vincent van Gogh composed one of his most poignant statements on his aims as an artist:

"I'd rather paint people's eyes than cathedrals," Van Gogh stated, "for there's something in the eyes that isn't in the cathedral ... to my mind the soul of a person ... is more interesting."

While reading this heartfelt statement, one almost senses that the Dutch painter will continue his reflections with a paraphrase of the often-quoted proverb, "the eyes are the mirror of the soul."

Van Gogh did not pursue the eyes/soul theme or use the analogy of mirror in his 1885 letter to Theo. Earlier, in 1877, he did write in this vein to his brother - as we will discuss momentarily. But when I stood before Van Gogh's portrait of Joseph-Etienne Roulin, on view in a special exhibition at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, these words soon came to mind and have been much in my thoughts since then.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Vincent van Gogh's The Postman (Joseph-Etienne Roulin),1889

Van Gogh's "Postman" was the anchor work of art in a spectacular four-painting ensemble in the just concluded From Paris to Provence exhibition at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. In the Art Eyewitness review of this wonderful exhibit, I commented on the special insights afforded to this portrait by a change from its normal Barnes Method presentation. I won't belabor that point further.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

Gallery view of Paris to Provence, showing

 Van Gogh's Still Life (1888), The Smoker (1888), The Postman (1889) 

and Houses and Figure (1890).

Oddly enough, it was not the way that Joseph-Etienne Roulin was hung in the exhibition that occasioned my reflections on the eyes of this iconic portrait. Instead, it was a very unusual design feature in the layout of Paris to Provence in the Roberts Gallery of the Barnes which led to a train of thought which, to be honest, I had not been expecting.  

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) 

Gallery view of Paris to Provence at the Barnes Foundation, showing

 an example of a "cut-out" or "window" exhibition feature

Known colloquially as "cut-outs" or "windows", these openings in gallery walls create lines of sight which can totally transform exhibit spaces. The Met used this technique to brilliant effect in its 2022 Winslow Homer exhibition.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2022)

 Gallery view of the Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents exhibit at The Met

Instead of keeping us "imprisoned" within four walls and a ceiling, the special exhibition gallery now opens our eyes and minds to unusual sights, unorthodox angles of observation and unexpected impressions and thoughts. This process sounds more dramatic than it is in practice, which transpires at several degrees below our conscious awareness.

Yet, these "cut-outs" can powerfully affect our perception and help transform a visual encounter with works of art into a visionary experience.

For that to happen, we need to augment the influence of sophisticated design techniques like "cut-outs" with an appreciation of the work of art we are examining. This includes the social and spiritual realms which the artist and his subject inhabit, as well as the exterior setting around them.  

To help us comprehend this complex interplay of outer environment and inner character traits, another quote from Vincent van Gogh is in order. This reflection dates to 1877, when Van Gogh worked in an art dealership in London. In a letter to his brother, Theo, Van Gogh wrote,

 "The souls of places seem to enter the souls of men, so often from a barren, dreary region there emerges a lively, ardent and profound faith. As the place, so the man. The soul is a mirror first, and only then a seat of feeling."   

To test Van Gogh's theories on how the circumstances of the world around us enter into the "souls of men", let's compare the Barnes Foundation's portrait of Joseph-Etienne Roulin with two others which the Dutch artist painted of the French postal official (of a total of six).    

Shortly after arriving in Arles during the winter of 1888, Van Gogh became acquainted with Joseph-Etienne Roulin (1841-1903) and established a close friendship. Early on, he painted an impressive, almost heroic-scale, portrait of Roulin in his dark blue postal uniform, which gave him the air of a rugged sea-captain. 

Vincent van Gogh, Postman Joseph Roulin, 1888

This portrait, one of the treasures of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, presents  Roulin in an introspective mood. His eyes are not focused on Van Gogh, but looking inward. That is certainly not the case with a tightly-cropped portrait of Roulin, painted around the same time. It has the hard, almost defensive, stare of a passport photo.

It is this second work, from the collection of the Detroit Institute of Art, which best serves as a foil to the Barnes portrait of Roulin, which was painted in the spring of 1889. The two works, studied in contrast, exemplify Van Gogh's 1877 reflections on how the "soul is a mirror first, and only then a seat of feeling." 

  

Van Gogh's Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin, 1888,

 from the Detroit Institute of Art, (left) contrasted with the Barnes Foundation's The Postman (Joseph-Etienne Roulin), 1889. 

We know from Van Gogh's letters to Theo that it took him a while to get the measure of Roulin. Initially, he matter-of-factly described Roulin as a "man more interesting than most." 

By the time he painted Roulin in the spring of 1889. Van Gogh's tone had completely changed. Roulin had devotedly aided him during the terrible emotional breakdown triggered by the dispute with Gauguin. Even after he was transferred to duty in Marseilles, Roulin returned to Arles to visit Van Gogh, as he struggled to regain control of his life. Now, Roulin is described as having "the salient gravity and a tenderness for me such as an old soldier might have for a younger one." 

  

Gravity and tenderness, along with concern, sorrow and perhaps, a touch of fear. These emotions are visibly present in the "mirror" of Roulin's eyes. An intelligent man, with considerable life experience, Roulin likely suspected that Van Gogh's recovery would be a difficult process. 

There can be absolutely no doubt that the experience of his friendship with Roulin  had registered in Van Gogh's soul as "a seat of feeling." Van Gogh signed the Barnes Foundation portrait, "Vincent." It was the only one of his six portraits of Roulin to be signed. 

Van Gogh captured the essence of Roulin's character and inner spirit, making this work one of the greatest portraits in European art during the "long" 19th century. Having acknowledged Van Gogh's achievement, it also needs to be emphasized that From Paris to Provence gave plenty of scope to his contemporaries as portrait painters. Renoir, Cezanne, Gauguin and later Modigliani and Soutine, each in their unique way, devoted themselves to depicting their subjects - body and soul. 

    

The opening gallery of Paris to Provence presented a choice selection of portraits by Renoir, a portrait by Cézanne of his wife (which, like many a Cézanne, seems more of a work-in-progress than a finished painting) and an intriguing genre scene by Manet. All are works of enduring merit. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Gallery view of the Paris to Provence exhibition, showing Renoir's Portrait of 

Jeanne Durand-Ruel, 1876

Given our theme of the eyes as "mirror of the soul,"  Renoir's portraits of two young girls, each the daughter of a prominent art dealer, command our attention.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Details of Renoir's Portrait of Jeanne Durand-Ruel, 1876, &

Girl with a Jump Rope: Portrait of Delphine Legrand, 1876

The girl on the left, Jeanne Durand-Ruel (1870-1914), was the daughter of Paul Durand-Ruel, the principal dealer of Manet and the Impressionists, including Renoir. On the right is Delphine Legrand, whose father, Alphonse Legrand, helped organize the Second Impressionist Exposition. This occurred in 1876, the year Renoir painted both portraits.

Renoir is said to have left the choice of clothing to the subjects who sat for their portraits. In the case of these children, the selection would have been made by their parents. The decision to dress the six-year old Jeanne in a bare-shouldered ball dress seems out-of-character for a level-headed business man and staunch Catholic like Durand-Ruel. Whatever motivated the choice of this dress, the result was to make little Jeanne look "living-doll" cute but also vulnerable, rather than grown-up and beautiful.

The blue smock, worn by Delphine, was a more sensible choice. Even grasping a jump-rope, she projects a mature personna. Looking at Delphine Legrand, one senses that this little girl is quite capable of handling herself in her social milieu.

Close-study of the faces and eyes of Jeanne and Delphine confirm what marvelous portraits these are. Renoir succeeded in capturing the real character of each girl and evoking their individual souls as "a seat of feeling." Jeanne's eyes are compelling and appealing; Delphine's are alert, aware and self-assured.

Or so it seems - and this is an important point to consider.

If we continue to hearken-back to the proverb, "the eyes are the mirror of the soul," we need to reflect on what this means. Proverbs, like the Oracle of Delphi, are open to interpretation. 

Who is reflected in the mirror of Jeanne's and Delphine's eyes? The young girls themselves? Renoir, who painted them? We, the art lovers who study them?

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Cézanne's Madam Cézanne, 1888-1890, Barnes Foundation

Continuing in this train of thought, who is mirrored in the dull, dark eyes of Madam Cézanne? Displayed in the same gallery as the Renoir portraits just described, Cézanne's painting appears to come from a completely different artistic convention and an alien way of thinking.

Cézanne could paint endearing and character-affirming portraits - when he was moved to do so. He demonstrated his versatility with Madam Cezanne with Her Hair Down, from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This was created shortly after the Barnes Foundation portrait with its grim, sullen expression, dating to 1890. 

                                                                                                                      

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) 

Cézanne's Madam Cézanne with Her Hair Down, 1890

 Philadelphia Museum of Art collection

Cézanne's rationale for depicting the human countenance according to the dictates of mood and feeling is memorably described  by his biographer, Alex Danchev:

A Cézanne portrait is more a thereness than a likeness. The mature Cézanne scorned mere likeness ... The portraits he preferred were the ones that showed temperament...

Inscrutable though the Barnes' portrait of Madame Cézanne may appear, we should resist concluding that personal factors or traces of marital discord influenced the way her husband depicted her. Cézanne had other motives. He was pushing art into uncharted regions, toward discovering a "thereness." 

Sentimentality had little place in Cézanne's artistic calculations. He adored his son, Paul. Yet the numerous portraits and sketches of Paul displayed in the National Gallery exhibit, Cézanne's Portraits (2018), and MOMA's Cézanne Drawing (2021) feature a circumscribed range of emotions much like those in  paintings of his mother. No beaming eyes or charming smiles that I can recall.

Instead of sentimentality in his portraits, Cézanne responded to sensations.

"I paint as I see, as I feel," Cézanne declared early in his career, "and I have very strong sensations."

It was these sensations and Cézanne's rigorous determination to depict them on his canvas which drew the attention of the succeeding generation of artists to follow his example, if not his techniques.

In the final gallery of From Paris to Provence, the legacy of Renoir, Van Gogh and - especially - Cézanne was seized-upon and radically re-envisioned by the School of Paris artists. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 View of the final gallery of From Paris to Provence, showing (from left) Modigliani's Girl with a Polka-Dot Blouse (1919), Soutine's Woman in Blue (1919) & Modigliani's Portrait of the Red-Headed Woman (1918)

Of this avant-garde group, Modigliani and Soutine worked with an almost reckless disregard for convention and their own health. They sought to integrate new influences into the art of portraiture - African masks, unsettling theories about human thought, emotion and sexuality, the impact of World War I - to promote the grand traditions of French art for a new century.

To  a remarkable degree, the School of Paris painters, with hardly a Frenchman in their ranks, made a lasting impact on the world of art.                                            

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

Details of portraits by Amadeo Modigliani and Chaim Soutine: Modigliani's Portrait of the Red-Headed Woman (1918)& Girl with a Polka-Dot Blouse (1919); Soutine's Woman in Blue (1919)

By the time this essay is posted, all of the works of art displayed in From Paris to Provence will have been rehung in their accustomed places on the gallery walls of the Barnes. Most had not been moved from their prescribed configuration since the 1993 international exhibition of Barnes Foundation works of art.  

Van Gogh's "Postman" will return to its cramped position behind an 18th century Windsor chair and Delphine Legrand will hop and skip with her jumping rope over a painted wooden chest, made by Pennsylvania Dutch craftsmen in 1792.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Visitors to the Barnes Foundation, viewing works of art in the Main Room, north wall, of the museum

However, don't expect the situation at the Barnes to be exactly as it was before From Paris to Provence. This is especially true, if you had the good fortune to visit this superb exhibition. 

Once you look in the mirror of a person's eyes and catch a glimpse of their soul - or a reflection of your own - things are never quite the same again.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                  

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd

All works of art, unless otherwise noted are from the Barnes Foundation collection

Introductory Image:

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Detail of Pierre-August Renoir's Portrait of Jeanne Durand-Ruel, 1876.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Vincent van Gogh's The Postman (Joseph-Etienne Roulin), 1889. Oil on canvas: 25 7/8 x 21 3/4 in. (65.7 x 55.2 cm).

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Gallery view of Paris to Provence at the Barnes Foundation, showing four paintings by Vincent van Gogh: Still Life (1888), The Smoker (1888), The Postman (1889) and Houses and Figure (1890).

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Gallery view of Paris to Provence at the Barnes Foundation, showing an example of a "cut-out" or "window" exhibition feature.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2022) Gallery view of the Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890) Postman Joseph Roulin, 1888. Oil on canvas: 32 x 25 3/4 in. (81.3 x 65.4 cm). Museum of Fine Arts Boston. 

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890) Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin, 1888. Oil on canvas: 25 9/16 x 19 7/8 in. (65 x 50.5cm). Detroit Institute of Art. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Gallery view of the Paris to Provence exhibition, showing exhibition  entrance and Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Woman with a Fan.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Gallery view of the Paris to Provence exhibition, showing Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Portrait of Jeanne Durand-Ruel, 1876.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Details of Renoir's Portrait of Jeanne Durand-Ruel, 1876. 44 7/8 x 29 1/8 in. (114 x 74 cm)  and Girl with a Jump Rope: Portrait of Delphine Legrand, 1876. Oil on canvas: 42 1/4 x 27 15/16 in. (107.3 x 71 cm) 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Cézanne's Madam Cézanne, 1888-1890. Oil on canvas: 36 1/2 × 28 3/4 in. (92.7 × 73 cm) 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Cézanne's Madam Cézanne with Her Hair Down, 1890. the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Oil on canvas: 24 3/8 × 20 1/8 in. (61.9 × 51.1 cm) 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Installation view of the final gallery of From Paris to Provence, showing (from left) Modigliani's Girl with a Polka-Dot Blouse (1919), Soutine's Woman in Blue (1919) and Modigliani's Portrait of the Red-Headed Woman (1918).

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Detail of portraits by Amadeo Modigliani and Chaim Soutine: Modigliani's Portrait of the Red-Headed Woman (1918). Oil on canvas: overall: 45 11/16 x 28 3/4 in. (116 x 73 cm); Modigliani's Girl with a Polka-Dot Blouse (1919). Oil on canvas: 45 1/2 x 28 3/4 in. (c 115.6 x 73 cm); Soutine's Woman in Blue (1919). Oil on canvas: 39 1/2 x 23 3/4 in. (100.3 x 60.3 cm)

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Visitors to the Barnes Foundation, viewing works of art in the Main Room, north wall, of the museum.