{"id":1419,"date":"2026-06-08T21:15:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T19:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horscadre.paris\/young-girls-at-the-piano-renoirs-first-official-commission\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T22:42:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T20:42:39","slug":"young-girls-at-the-piano-renoirs-first-official-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horscadre.paris\/en\/young-girls-at-the-piano-renoirs-first-official-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Girls at the Piano \u2014 Renoir’s First Official Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paris, early 1892.<\/strong> Pierre-Auguste Renoir was fifty-one years<\/strong> old. He had behind him a thirty-year artistic career<\/strong>, four of the eight Impressionist exhibitions<\/strong>, the absolute masterpiece<\/strong> *Le Bal du moulin de la Galette*<\/em> (1876), the scandal<\/strong> of his Ingresque period<\/strong> (1881\u20131888), and now a mature body of work<\/strong> in which he achieves a synthesis between classical drawing<\/strong> and the Impressionist palette<\/strong>. But one fact remains<\/strong> \u2014a fact that his friends and admirers<\/strong> find scandalous<\/strong>: the French government has never placed a single official commission with the painter<\/strong>. No national museum owns a Renoir. Not a single work has been purchased with public funds. <\/p>\n\n

This institutional anomaly<\/strong> deeply<\/strong> troubled St\u00e9phane Mallarm\u00e9<\/strong> (1842\u20131898), the Symbolist poet<\/strong> who was then a respected figure<\/strong> in the Parisian art world<\/strong>. Mallarm\u00e9 had known Renoir personally since the 1870s. He had been friends with Manet<\/strong> (who painted his portrait in 1876<\/strong>, now in the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay). He deeply<\/strong> admired Renoir\u2019s work. He decided to take action.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

With the support of Roger Marx<\/strong> (1859\u20131913), a young civil servant<\/strong> inthe Fine Arts Administration<\/strong> who was open to innovative movements<\/strong>, Mallarm\u00e9 orchestrated discreet efforts<\/strong> in the spring of 1892<\/strong> to bring Impressionist<\/strong> works into the national collections<\/strong>. Roger Marx<\/strong>, who worked as a journalist and art critic alongside his administrative duties, had recently been appointed Inspector General of Museums<\/strong> and had the necessary authority<\/strong> to place official commissions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

The result of this restoration project<\/strong> was an informal commission<\/strong> awarded to Pierre-Auguste Renoir to create a work for the Mus\u00e9e du Luxembourg<\/strong> \u2014then known as the Mus\u00e9e des Artistes Vivants<\/strong> and dedicated tocontemporary French art<\/strong>. Renoir, proud<\/strong> of this first official recognition<\/strong> at the age of 51, chose his subject<\/strong>: Young Girls at the Piano<\/em><\/strong>. He set to work with relentless dedication<\/strong> \u2014such was his determination that he painted six<\/strong> different versions<\/strong> of the same composition, four<\/strong> of which were signed<\/strong> (and thus considered finished), yet he remained unsatisfied<\/strong> with any of them. <\/p>\n\n

The version ultimately acquired by the French government in 1892<\/strong> is now housed at the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay<\/strong>. This article recounts the precise genesis<\/strong> of this work\u2014the discreet Mallarm\u00e9-Roger Marx operation<\/strong> to bring Renoir into public collections, the mature technique<\/strong> of the \u201cpearly\u201d period<\/strong> (1890\u20131897), the obsessive perfectionism<\/strong> that led Renoir to paint six<\/strong> nearly identical versions<\/strong>, and the work\u2019s unique historical status<\/strong> as the first official recognition<\/strong> of a major Impressionist painter by French institutions. <\/p>\n\n

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1892 \u2014 Renoir is 51 years old and still has not received an official commission<\/h2>\n\n

To understand the significance<\/strong> of the work, one must understand the institutional context<\/strong> in which Renoir found himself in the early 1890s.<\/p>\n\n

A thirty-year career<\/strong>. Renoir began exhibiting at the Paris Salon in 1864<\/strong> \u2014he was accepted<\/strong> there sporadically<\/strong> between 1864 and 1872. He participated in the Impressionist exhibitions<\/strong> of 1874, 1876, 1877, and 1882<\/strong> \u2014four out of eight. He painted several hundred paintings<\/strong> during this period. He enjoyed moderate commercial success<\/strong> thanks to the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel<\/strong>, who had been championing the Impressionists since 1870. <\/p>\n\n

But the French government never bought anything from him.<\/strong> In 1892, at the age of 51<\/strong>, Renoir found himself in a paradoxical<\/strong> situation for a painter:<\/p>\n\n