An Image of a Painting by Renoir, Signed, Showing a Young Girl, Certified by Him As His Work

Ambroise Vollard was the great pioneering art dealer and art publisher of the early 20th century, and played a key role in the transformation of the art world. He championed Cézanne, Van Gogh, Renoir, Gauguin, Rousseau and other important artists of the period, bringing most out of obscurity and introducing them to the public. He maintained a long friendship with Renoir, and as early as 1895 Renoir used him to sell paintings, pastels and other works. Vollard published a book on Renoir in 1917 and an exhibition catalog in 1918. After Renoir’s death in 1919, Vollard published “Renoir, An Intimate Record”, which contained numerous black and white illustrations of his work.

As an art dealer, Vollard was well aware of the problem of forgeries, and as a publisher, he was conversant in the need to firmly establish copyrights. So to discourage forgeries of the works of Renoir that he handled, and to protect against any third party claim that rights to a piece of art that he published (or intended to publish) belonged to another, Vollard had the original works photographed, then had the artist sign the photographs, and had the signatures notarized. Some of these have survived the century since, and this is one.

A 6 by 7 inch photographic image of a painting by Renoir, showing one of his typical girls in profile, and quite similar to his “Girl Reading” series.  On the lower margin Renoir has signed, and below that he is identified as “Pierre Auguste Renoir, artist, painter”. His signature has been notarized as authentic by the Mayor of Cagnes, with the date of January 10, 1911. To the left is his official stamp, which reads “Cagnes Alpes Maritimes,” and has in the center the word “Mairie” (meaning town hall) inside of a laurel. The overall size is 6 ½ by 10 ¾ inches, mounted to a 9 by 12 inch board.