Provenance
1Alexandre Berthier Prince de Wagram Paris • until [d.] 1918 AStEGB, File accompanying Receipt from Roger Dequoy, 57, rue La Boétie, Paris, made out to Emil Bührle, Hôtel Ritz, Paris, 1 October 1941, regarding the purchase of five paintings, including Renoir, La Souce.
2Gaston Bernheim de Villers Paris • ca. 1920 AStEGB, Letter from Roger Dequoy, Paris, to Emil Bührle, 18 November 1944, answering Bührle's request to give detailed provenances of three of the pictures acquired from Wildenstein in October 1941, on behalf of the Office suisse de compensation (Schweizerische Verrechnungsstelle), Zurich. As to the various Paris dealers (Vollard, G. Petit, Bernheim-Jeune, Renou & Colle) quoted as the painting's owners in the catalogue of the 1958 exhibition of the Bührle Collection at the Kunsthaus Zürich (Sammlung Emil G. Bührle [exh. cat.] Kunsthaus Zurich 1958, no 177), no source for these references can be identified. Since Alexandre Berthier was killed in action in 1918, the date of acquisition through Bernheim de Villers given by Dequoy suggests one or multiple intermediary owners.
3Georges Wildenstein New York • by 1941 Represented by Roger Dequoy, Paris, Receipt as above, n. (1).
4Emil Bührle Zurich • 1 October 1941 until [d.] 28 November 1956 Acquired from the above for FF 2.000.000 minus a 10% discount = FF 1.800.000, as part of a group of 5 paintings, for which Emil Bührle paid a total sum of FF 6.000.000, Receipt as above, n. (1). For the price of Renoir, La Source AStEGB, Letter from Emil Bührle to Office suisse de compensation (Schweizerische Verrechnungsstelle), Zurich, 13 September 1944; this letter contains also the information that Bührle purchased the French Francs at the exchange rate of CHF 2.92 = FF 100. Following its acquisition by Bührle and its transport to Berlin, on 28 November 1942 the painting was directed to «Carinhall», the estate of Hermann Göring near Berlin, where it was kept until July 1944 before being released and handed over to a representative of Bührle in Berlin, Nancy H. Yeide, Beyond the Dreams of Avarice, The Hermann Goering Collection, Dallas 2009, no. A1256. Emil Bührle was not aware of this «detour» of his painting which was orchestrated by the art dealers Hans Wendland and Walter Andreas Hofer. He showed photographs of the new acquisitions he had just made in Paris to his fellow collector Oskar Reinhart from Winterthur when Reinhart visited him in Zurich on 14 November 1941 (Archive Collection Oskar Reinhart «Am Römerholz», Winterthur, Notizbuch no. 51/I, p. 171). Bührle also offered to lend the painting to the exhibition Ausländische Kunst in Zürich at the Kunsthaus Zurich in 1943 (Kunsthaus Zurich, Archive Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft / Kunsthaus Zürich, Ausstellungen 1943, Letter from Wilhelm Wartmann [director of the Kunsthaus], Zurich, to Emil Bührle, 23 May 1943, and AStEGB, List of paintings offered for the 1943 exhibition), although it had not yet reached Switzerland (and would not do so in time for the exhibition).
5Given by the heirs of Emil Bührle to the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection Zurich • 1960 Inv. 87.
AStEGB = Archive of the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich
Guy-Patrice Dauberville, Michel Dauberville, Renoir, Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, 5 vol., Paris, 2007-2014.
Exhibitions
19064ème Exposition Salon d'Automne (Grand Palais) • Paris • 1906 no. 1468 (p) or no. 1469 (p) (?).
1930Renoir and the Post-Impressionists Alex. Reid & Lefevre, Ltd. • London • 1930 no. 7.
1931La peinture française aux XIXe et XXe siècles E. J. van Wisselingh & Co. • Amsterdam • 1931 no. 45.
1950Europäische Kunst 13.–20. Jahrhundert aus Zürcher Sammlungen Kunsthaus Zurich • 1950 p. 27.
1958Sammlung Emil G. Bührle, Festschrift zu Ehren von Emil G. Bührle zur Eröffnung des Kunsthaus-Neubaus und Katalog der Sammlung Emil G. Bührle Kunsthaus Zurich • 1958 no. 177.
2009Renoir au XXe siècle Grand Palais, Paris • Los Angeles County Museum of Art • Philadelphia Museum of Art • 2009–10 no. 31 (exhibited in Paris only).
2010Van Gogh, Cézanne, Monet, Die Sammlung Bührle zu Gast im Kunsthaus Zürich Kunsthaus Zurich • 2010 no. 87.
2011Gli anni folli, La Parigi di Modigliani, Picasso e Dalí 1918–1933 Palazzo dei Diamanti • Ferrara • 2011–12 no. 1.
2014Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Revoir Renoir Fondation Pierre Gianadda • Martigny • 2014 no. 78.
2016Renoir, Intimacy (Renoir, Intimidad) Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid • Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao • 2016–17 no. 73.
2018Bührle Collection: Impressionist Masterpieces from the E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich (Switzerland) National Art Center, Tokyo • Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka • Nagoya City Art Museum • 2018 no. 36.
2019La Collection Emil BührleMusée Maillol • Paris • 2019 no. 20.
References
1911Julius Meier-Graefe Auguste Renoir Munich • 1911 • p. 173 (ill.; 21920).
1912Julius Meier-Graefe Auguste Renoir Paris • 1912 • p. 193 (ill.).
1918Ambroise Vollard Tableaux, pastels et dessins de Pierre-Auguste Renoir Paris • 1918 • vol. 2, fig. 164 (2Pierre Auguste-Renoir, Paintings, Pastels and Drawings; Tableaux, pastels et dessins, San Francisco 1989, fig. 1614).
1921Georges Rivières Renoir et ses amis Paris • 1921 • p. 249 (ill.).
1923Albert André Renoir Paris • 1923 • fig. 39.
1923Henri de Régnier Renoir, Peintre du nu Paris • 1923 • fig. 25.
1928Albert André Renoir Paris • 1928 • fig. 66.
1921Julius Meier-Graefe Renoir Leipzig • 1929 • p. 300, fig. 310, (2Frankfurt/M. 1986, p. 32; 3Frankfurt/M. & Leipzig 1994).
1933Lionello Venturi «Renoir» in Arte (36) • 1933 • pp. 483–484, fig. 13.
1934Christian Zervos «Renoir, Cézanne, leurs contemporains et la jeune peinture anglaise» in Cahiers d'art (9) • 1934 • p. 125 (ill.).
1955Michel Drucker Renoir Paris • 1955 • fig. 137.
1969Schätze aus Museen und Sammlungen in Zürich Zurich • 1969 • pp. 302–303 (ill.).
1972Elda Fezzi L'opera completa di Renoir nel periodo impressionista 1869–1883 Milan • 1972 • no. 757 (ill.; German edition: Das gemalte Gesamtwerk von Renoir aus der impressionistischen Periode 1869–1883, Lucerne etc. 1972; French edition: Elda Fezzi, Jacqueline Henry, Tout l'œuvre peint de Renoir, Période impressionniste 1869–1883, Paris 1985, no. 721 [ill.]).
1973Leopold Reidemeister etc. Stiftung Sammlung Emil G. Bührle • Fondation Collection Emil G. Bührle • Foundation Emil G. Bührle Collection Zurich & Munich • 1973 • no. 66 (ill.; 21986).
1984Barbara Ehrlich White Renoir, His Life, Art, and Letters New York • 1984 • p. 229 (ill. top right).
1994Emil Maurer Stiftung Sammlung E.G. Bührle Zürich Bern • 1994 • p. 40 (English edition: Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich, Bern 1995).
1994Lynn H. Nicholas The Rape of Europa, The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War, New York 1994, p. 169.
2005Lukas Gloor • Marco Goldin (ed.) Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich, Catalogue vol.2 • Conegliano & Zurich • 2005 • no. 97 (ill.; German edition: Stiftung Sammlung E.G. Bührle, Katalog • Italian edition: Fondazione Collezione E.G. Bührle, Catalogo).
2009Anne Distel Renoir Paris • 2009 • fig. 297.
2009Nancy H. Yeide Beyond the Dreams of Avarice, The Hermann Goering Collection Dallas • 2009 • no. A1256 (ill.).
2012Guy-Patrice Dauberville • Michel Dauberville Renoir, Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles vol. 4 1903–1910 Paris • 2012 • no. 3523 (ill.).
2016Paul Perrin «¿ Un 'ideal femenino moderno'1?, El éxito crítico de los desnudos de Renoir a principios del siglo XX» in Renoir, Entre mujeres, Del ideal moderno als ideal clásico, Collectiones de los museos d'Orsay y de l'Orangerie (exh. cat.) Fundación Mapfre (Casa Garriga i Nogués) • Barcelona • 2016–17 • pp. 15, 261, fig. 3.
2021Lukas Gloor «The Holdings of the Emil Bührle Collection: Illustrated List of All 633 Purchases» in The Emil Bührle Collection: History, Full Catalogue and 70 Masterpieces Swiss Institute for Art Research, Zurich (ed.) • Munich • 2021 • no. 66 (ill.).