Auguste Renoir - Madame Victor Chocquet 1875

Madame Victor Chocquet 1875
Madame Victor Chocquet
1875 75x60cm oil/canvas
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany

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From Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany:
Augustine Marie Caroline Buisson was the wife of Victor Chocquet, a minor official at the Paris customs office. Chocquet was initially attracted and fascinated by the unusual works painted by his contemporaries Delacroix, Renoir and Monet. Having discovered that they were indeed affordable, he grasped the opportunity and began purchasing them eagerly.
Out of gratitude, the young Renoir painted this remarkable portrait of Chocquet’s spouse, a true masterpiece of impressionist art. The colours are cool and radiant, and the brushwork structure dissolves the objects in shimmering light. At the same time, the artist renders the simple, unpretentious attitude of the young woman masterfully. On the wall behind Madame Chocquet hangs one of the paintings from her husband’s collection, a sketch by Delacroix (who had died in 1863) of the frescoes in the Palais Bourbon.