Terms and conditions of use
The guitar player
(La Joueuse de guitare)
(c. 1896)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
55.0 × 46.0 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria with the assistance of Alcoa of Australia Limited and the Alcoa Foundation, Governors, and The Shell Company of Australia Limited, Founder Benefactor, 1977
Gallery location
Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Pierre-Auguste Renoir often painted people enjoying quiet, private moments. Women were frequently the subject of these paintings, and were portrayed bathing, reading, sewing or closely interacting with children. From the late 1880s onwards, Renoir produced a number of intimate studies in which the sitters are playing musical instruments. Curiously, very few of these works convey any sense of ‘performance’, or any suggestion that the music is meant for ears other than the player’s.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in brown paint l.r.: Renoir.
Accession Number
EA2-1977
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Human Figures Musical
Subjects (specific)
guitars musicians profiles (figures) seated figures women (female humans)
Movements
Impressionism
Provenance
Purchased from the artist by Galerie Durand-Ruel (dealer), Paris, 30 November 1899, stock no. 5544, photo no. 1472; exhibited Durand-Ruel, Tableaux par A. Renoir, Paris, June 1902, no. 17; exhibited at Grafton Gallery, London, 1905, no. 266 (owner Durand-Ruel); exhibited Durand-Ruel, Paris, Tableaux par Monet, C. Pissarro, Renoir et Sisley, 1910, no. 29; purchased by Paul Cassirer (1871–1926), Berlin, March 1912; collection of S. Cassirer, Switzerland; purchased by Galerie Nathan, Zurich (dealer) [entrusted to Kunstmuseum Basel during the Second World War]; sold to Swiss private collector 4 March, 1946; by whom sold to Galerie Nathan (owner Peter Nathan), Zurich (dealer) from which acquired by the NGV, 1977.