1934
Oil on board
Signed (lower right)
28.5 x 39.5 cm (unframed)
50.5 x 60.5 cm (framed)

Provenance:
Galerie Michael Aalders, Paris; Private Collection

Albert André (1869 – 1954) was a French Post-Impressionist figurative painter. He produced portraits of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, his closest friend, and Claude Monet. Born in Lyon, he initially trained there designing patterns for silk. In 1889 he moved to Paris to enroll at the Académie Julian. There he associated with the group known as Les Nabis which included Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis, Vallotton, Marquet and Signac. In 1894, he exhibited five paintings at the Salon des Indépendants where he caught the eye of Renoir. Despite their age difference, a solid friendship united them until Renoir’s death in 1919, providing André with guidance in his career. Today many of his paintings can be found in major world museums such as the Modern Art Museum of New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, museums in Philadelphia and Washington DC, Paris’s Musée d’Orsay, the Galerie Rienzo, and the Musée Albert-André in France.