id: 128364 accession number: 1951.324 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1951.324 updated: 2025-04-16 18:11:16.496000 Young Woman Arranging Her Earring, 1905. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919). Oil on fabric; framed: 76.5 x 67.5 x 10 cm (30 1/8 x 26 9/16 x 3 15/16 in.); unframed: 55.3 x 46.4 cm (21 3/4 x 18 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of William G. Mather 1951.324 title: Young Woman Arranging Her Earring title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1905 creation date earliest: 1905 creation date latest: 1905 current location: creditline: Bequest of William G. Mather copyright: --- culture: France, 20th century technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919) - artist Renoir's parents, a tailor and a dressmaker, moved their family to Paris in 1844. At age thirteen Renoir apprenticed with the porcelain decorators Levy Frères & Cie. He earned money by painting fans, blinds, and murals for cafés. In 1860 he registered to copy Old Master paintings in the Louvre and, the following year, entered the studio of Charles Gleyre (1806-1874), where he met Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870), Monet (q.v.), and Sisley (q.v.). In 1862 he was also accepted at the École des Beaux-Arts. With his friends from Gleyre's studio, he began working en plein air and, during a visit to the forest of Fontainebleau, was introduced to Diaz de la Peña (q.v.). After a failed attempt in 1863, Renoir's first painting was accepted at the Salon of 1864, the same year he painted Cleveland's portrait of Romaine Lacaux. More typical of this early period, however, is the painting Diana the Huntress (1867, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), which reveals Courbet's (q.v.) influence. Around 1867 Renoir shared a studio with Bazille and Monet, the latter becoming an important influence on his art. Renoir and Monet's comparable impressionist style during this period is evident in two paintings each made at La grenouillère (all four titled La grenouillère, 1869: Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, and Pushkin Museum, Moscow [Renoir]; National Gallery, London, and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York [Monet]),1 a bathing establishment on the Seine. After Renoir's military service during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), Monet introduced him to the dealer Durand-Ruel, who began purchasing his works. Renoir's submissions to the Salon were regularly refused, which encouraged him to participate in the first impressionist exhibition in 1874 and the 1875 auction at Hôtel Drouot, where his works were ridiculed by the critics. At the third impressionist exhibition in 1877, he showed Ball at the Moulin de la Galette (1876, Musée d'Orsay, Paris), in which he addressed a subject of modern life, one of his most characteristic impressionist paintings on a grand scale, with a rich pattern of light and shadow. In 1878 he returned to the Salon and became quite successful, establishing his reputation as a portraitist (1878, Mme Charpentier and her Children, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). He continued to use this official venue for the next several years, declining to exhibit with the impressionists. This decision was partly generated by the fact that his newfound clientele would be more appreciative of his participating in the Salon. He was supported by his patrons, particularly the Charpentiers, owners of a publishing house, whose journal La vie moderne furthered Renoir's reputation. After a trip to North Africa and Italy in 1881, he joined Cézanne at L'Estaque. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s Renoir traveled extensively through Brittany, Normandy, Provence, and Spain. In the mid-1880s he began to experiment with more linear contours, the application of thinner paint layers, and smoother brush strokes. This so-called Ingresque period, which had a very mixed reception, lasted for about six years. He then reflected upon the achievements of the Old Masters and favored a more fluid style, after which he returned to using broader brush strokes and more vibrant colors. In 1886 he was given a one-man show by Durand-Ruel. By 1900 Renoir was an established artist: he became Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1900 and four years later was honored at the Salon d'Automne with a gallery devoted to his works. Beginning in 1912 he suffered from rheumatism and began using a wheelchair, yet he continued to work until the end of his life. He now often stayed in southern France, where he owned property in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Renoir regularly exhibited his works at the Durand-Ruel and Bernheim-Jeune galleries in Paris, as well as elsewhere in Europe and in the United States. --- measurements: Framed: 76.5 x 67.5 x 10 cm (30 1/8 x 26 9/16 x 3 15/16 in.); Unframed: 55.3 x 46.4 cm (21 3/4 x 18 1/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower left: Renoir translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Fifty Years of French Art opening date: 1926-10-29T05:00:00 Fifty Years of French Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 29-November 29, 1926). title: Renoir: Promise of Happiness opening date: 2009-05-28T00:00:00 Renoir: Promise of Happiness. Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (Republic of) (organizer) (May 28-September 13, 2009). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': "New York, Durand-Ruel. Exhibition of Paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1908), no. 40, Jeune fille arrangeant ses boucles d'oreille, 1906.", 'opening_date': '1908-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA. French Paintings of the Later XIX Century (1921), no cat., lent by William G. Mather.', 'opening_date': '1921-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA. Exhibition of Paintings-Édouard Manet, Pierre Renoir, Berthe Morisot (1924-25), no cat., lent by W. G. Mather.', 'opening_date': '1924-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA. Fifty Years of French Art (1926), no cat., lent by William G. Mather.', 'opening_date': '1926-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA. French Art since 1800 (1929), CMA Bulletin 16 (1929): 162.', 'opening_date': '1929-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art (1936), no. 308.', 'opening_date': '1936-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Renoir: A Special Exhibition of His Paintings (1937), no. 57 (repr.).', 'opening_date': '1937-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'New York, Duveen Galleries. Centennial Loan Exhibition 1841-1941: Renoir (1941), no. 73, 95 (repr.).', 'opening_date': '1941-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Saginaw (Mich.) Museum. Exhibition of Nineteenth Century French Painting (1948-49), no. 26, lent by Mr. and Mrs. William Gwinn Mather, Cleveland (repr.).', 'opening_date': '1948-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Columbus (Ohio) Gallery of Fine Arts. Masterpieces of Painting. Treasures of Five Centuries (1950), Bulletin 21 (Fall 1950): no. 29 (repr.).', 'opening_date': '1950-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': "New York, Paul Rosenberg & Co. Loan Exhibition-The Last Twenty Years of Renoir's Life (1954), no. 3 (repr.).", 'opening_date': '1954-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Los Angeles County Museum; San Francisco Museum of Art. Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, and Sculptures (1955), no. 66, fig. 66.', 'opening_date': '1955-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Seoul Museum of Art (5/28/2009 - 9/13/2009): "Renoir: Promise of Happiness"', 'opening_date': '2009-05-28T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE Bought from the artist by Durand-Ruel, Paris (stock number 8306) on 24 October 1906. date: footnotes: citations: Sold to Durand-Ruel, New York (stock number 3224), 19 October 1908. date: footnotes: citations: Sold to Mrs. G. Mather, 5 April 1911. date: footnotes: citations: William G. Mather, Cleveland. Bequeathed to the CMA on 26 July 1951. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS “Lists of Objects in the Exhibition.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 16, no. 9 (1929): 159–75. page number: Mentioned: p. 162 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25137248. Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” September 26, 1951, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: url: https://archive.org/details/cmapr0030 Milliken, William, and Henry Francis. "Bequest of William G. Mather." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 38, no. 8 (October 1951): 196-198 page number: Reproduced: front cover; Mentioned: p. 198 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141735 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 177 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n201 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 177 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n201 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 219 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n239 Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 536-537, Vol. II, no. 187 url: Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Picture Book No. 4 . [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. page number: url: https://archive.org/details/CMAPaintings1952 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1951.324/1951.324_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1951.324/1951.324_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1951.324/1951.324_full.tif