Flea Market Renoir

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Experiment Station

Alphonsine Fournaise in a detail from
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-81. French. Oil on canvas. 51 1/4 x 69 1/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Acquired 1923

According to the Washington Post, a Virginia woman found a Renoir, Landscape on the Banks of the Seine, in a box of knickknacks she bought in a West Virginia flea market for $7. The best part? The painting was once owned by Alphonsine Fournaise–she who flirtatiously leans against the railing in our Luncheon of the Boating Party. The lucky bargain hunter is having the painting auctioned off, and plans to use the money for house repairs and to take her mother on a trip to France.

Ianthe Gergel, Museum Assistant

Had I known it would be such a bargain . . .

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Sarah Osborne Bender

: Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, Nude Study for Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, XIX, 1879–80. Bronze, 27 3/8 x 11 9/16 x 11 15/16 in. Private Collection.

The other night at Christie’s, one of Degas’s little dancers, Petite danseuse de quatorze ans (circa 1879-1881), was auctioned off. Having come to love this early study of the work in our current exhibition, perhaps I should have bid.