The old collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York! Renault Ajie's work appears in Hong Kong night photography
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
The Seaside Path (The Forest of Noirmoutier)
Oil on canvas
66.2 x 81.4 cm.
Executed circa 1892
Estimate: HK$18,000,000 - 28,000,000
This work will be offered in the Hong Kong 20th and 21st Century Evening Sale on 28 March
On 28 March, the Hong Kong 20th and 21st Century Evening Sale will proudly present a masterpiece of landscape painting from Pierre-Auguste Renoir's mature period, The Seaside Path (The Forest of Noirmoutier)(La Promenade au bord de la mer (Le Bois de la Chaise Noirmoutier) ). This work was once in the collection of Milena Yurzkoska, widow of Alfred Yurzkoska, founder of a major Brazilian automobile company,and was later gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it remained for nearly half a century.
The Hong Kong Museum of Artis currently also exhibiting Renoir paintings from the collections of the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris. With The Seaside Path (The Forest of Noirmoutier) now appearing at Christie's auction, you too have the opportunity to acquire a museum-grade masterpiece by the great master.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)The Seaside Path (The Forest of Noirmoutier)To be offered in the Evening Sale of 20th and 21st Century Art in Hong Kong on 28 March
Painted in the summer of 1892, Renoir here delicately captures his romantic vision of the French coastline, harmoniously blending the signature techniques of early Impressionism—a fluid, sweeping brushwork—with the more structured, sculptural strokes that began to appear in the artist's work from the 1880s onward.
To discover the enchanting beauty of nature and to captivate viewers with it—that was Renoir's goal; all his creative endeavors were devoted to this very purpose!
(G. Rivière, quoted in C. Bailey & C. Liobaert et al., *Renoir's Landscapes: 1865-1883*, London, 2007, p. 13)
In the painting, the landscape winds with rhythm and grace, where elegant lines interweave with lush, dappled tones, revealing the serene beauty of Noirmoutier Island—an idyllic isle that inspired several of Renoir's works, including the companion piece to the present lot, the celebrated *Bois de la Chaise (Noirmoutier)*, now in the collection of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
*Bois de la Chaise (Noirmoutier)*
Executed in 1892
The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia
Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation, Merion and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1892, Renoir embarked on a long journey through northwestern France, spending the end of summer in the resort town of Pornic. Noirmoutier Island, just off the coast, was known as the "Island of Mimosas" for its lush vegetation and crystal-clear waters—an environment that deeply captivated the artist.
In *The Seaside Promenade*, two women and two children stroll beneath the towering pines of Bois de la Chaise, a tranquil woodland near the island's shoreline. Subtle plays of light and shadow filter through the branches, while the shimmering blue sea glimmers in the distance, enhancing the painting's depth and serenity. Renoir's masterful double wet-on-wet technique softens the middle and far ground, allowing the landscape to dissolve into a gentle haze, while the foreground—especially the blossoming treetops—is rendered with greater precision, subtly reinforcing spatial recession and perspective.
In the 1880s, Renoir traveled to Italy, Algeria, and the Mediterranean. During these grand tours, he was inspired to re-examine his own creative approach, ultimately returning to a softer, more lyrical style of painting. While his early Impressionist works sought to capture fleeting effects of light and shadow, his later landscapes reflect an idealized pursuit of nature's forms, through which he sought structural spatial stability.
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)
Millstone and Cistern in the Undergrowth
Circa 1892-1894
The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, USA
Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation, Merion and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In this work, the symbolic grouping of three trees (with the main tree prominently placed in the foreground) recalls the compositions of his friend Paul Cézanne. Although Renoir remained committed to Impressionism, like Cézanne he began to move away from purely spontaneous brushwork, developing a greater interest in compositional harmony and the arrangement of the scene. Cézanne's method of building form through layered, architectural brushstrokes likely influenced Renoir's handling of volume and spatial organization here. While *The Seashore Path (Forest of Noirmoutier)* retains Renoir's signature luminous and soft sheen, the deliberate rendering of figures and foliage reveals Cézanne's innovative sense of structure and depth.
The island of Noirmoutier was a fashionable resort at the time, offering the artist ample opportunities to paint elegant figures bathed in brilliant sunlight—an extension of the leisure scenes found in his earlier works. The soft rendering and finely balanced composition of this period paved the way for his later creations, includingthe culminating masterpieces of his final years,exemplified by the grand, Rubensian bather figures.
More Selected Masterpieces from Western Modern Masters
René Magritte (1898-1967)
Gouache Watercolor Colored Pencil on Paper
Estimate: HK$ 15,000,000 - 25,000,000
This lot will be offered in the Hong Kong Evening Sale of 20th and 21st Century Art on 28 March
Kees van Dongen (1877-1968)
The Concert Hall
Oil on Canvas
73.3 x 60.4 cm.
Executed circa 1958
Estimate: HK$ 3,500,000 - 5,500,000
This work will be offered in the Hong Kong Day Sale of 20th Century Art on 29 March
Bernard Buffet (1928-1999)
La Baume, Two Globes
Oil on Canvas
89 x 130 cm.
Executed in 1987
Estimate: HK$ 1,600,000 - 2,800,000
This work will be offered in the Hong Kong 20th Century Day Sale on 29 March
Estimate: RMB 3,500,000 - 4,500,000
This lot will be offered on 4Aprilin Shanghai20th Century and -----END-----Evening Sale of 21st Century ArtPresents
Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978)
Estimate: RMB 2,200,000 - 3,200,000
This lot will be offered in theEvening Sale of 20thand 21st Century Artto be held in Shanghaion April 3Presents
March 28 | Hong Kong 20th & 21st Century Evening Sale
March 29 | Hong Kong 20th & 21st Century Day Sale
April 3 | Shanghai 20th & 21st Century Evening Sale
