PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR
Nu endormi au bras levé .
Color pastel counter proof with additions in pencil on tissue-thin Japan paper mounted on cream wove paper, circa 1885. 430x500 mm; 16 7/8x19 3/4 inches. Initialed in pencil, lower left recto.
Ex-collection Ambroise Vollard, Paris; and Henri M. Petiet, Paris (see Lugt supplement 2021a).
Published in Vollard, Tableaux, pastels et dessins de Pierre-Auguste Renoir , Paris, 1918, number 1339.
The outlines of the face and hair and contours of the body reinforced by the artist with pencil.
Vollard (1866-1939) was Renoir's principal art dealer. His vast collection of prints (Vollard was both a collector and one of the leading publishers of his day in Paris) was acquired by Henri M. Petiet (1894-1980); the Petiet collection of fine books and art has been dispersed at auction in Paris since the 1990s.