"A good handshake for Cézanne when you will see him"
Autograph letter signed ("ARenoir").
8vo. 1 p. on bifolium.
€ 4,500.00
In French, to his friend, the collector Victor Chocquet (1821-91), sending good wishes for the New Year from Capri: "I am writing to you from an ideal small island, where one lives outside in plain sunshine surrounded by the blue sea, and orange trees, and olive trees and flowers. Otherwise, I am thinking of Paris, of the old friends that I left there, and I do not wish to let a new year come round without renewing the sincere marks of my deep friendship and gratitude to them. Therefore I wish you, my good friend, and Madame Chocquet plenty of years, one better than the other. I would not tell you anything else in this letter". In a short postscript to this charming letter, Renoir sends greetings to Paul Cézanne: "A good handshake for Cézanne when you will see him".
Chocquet had discovered Renoir in the late 1870s and commissioned several paintings - an important development in the artist's career. Renoir's 1881/82 trip to Italy, where he studied the masterworks of Titian and Raphael, marks the beginning of his shift toward post-Impressionism. His small oil painting "Capri marina" is already indicative of this change, especially Renoir's later colour palette.
Traces of folds. Some browning.
