Arturo Nieto

Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919 French Femme au corsage blanc, Jeanne Samary (Woman in a white blouse, Jeanne Samary Initialed "AR" (lower right) Pastel on paper Among Renoir's most famous works are those that capture the ladies of his inner circle in his signature style. This vibrant pastel from 1879 depicts the young Jeanne Samary, Renoir’s favorite subject and most important muse at the height of his career. Compared to his 4,000 paintings, the artist made exceptionally few pastels—only about 150 total—making this luminous work an extraordinary Renoir rarity. Samary was one of the most captivating figures of late 19th-century Paris. An iconic actress at the Comédie-Française, her fame rivaled that of the great Sarah Bernhardt. Beginning in 1876, Renoir created dozens of portraits of Samary, and she also appeared in all three of the artist’s most important paintings from this pivotal period—Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876), La balançoire (1876) and The Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880–81). Renoir’s close friend and biographer, Georges Rivière, noted that “no portrait ever gave Renoir greater satisfaction than the ones he made of Samary.” This magnificent pastel perfectly embodies this bond between Renoir and Samary. Vivid and spontaneous, the work captures an intimate moment, with Samary’s blouse delicately falling over her shoulder. Renoir typically reserved pastel for his portraits of friends and family, as it allowed him to capture their true essence with speed and ease. The year this pastel was created, 1879, was also one of the most important years of Renoir’s career. He entered the prestigious Salon of 1879, where four of his portraits were accepted, including a full-length masterpiece of Jeanne Samary. This pastel stands as a testament to this pivotal chapter for Renoir, portraying the muse who shaped his groundbreaking vision. Renoir’s portraits of Jeanne Samary are exceptionally scarce, with most already held in prestigious museum collections, including the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Similar pastels of Samary have commanded millions at auction—among some of the highest prices for Renoir’s works on paper. Importantly, the artist’s pastels are getting recent museum attention, with the major 2025-2026 exhibition organized by the Musée d’Orsay and the Morgan Library, Renoir Drawings...

Wayne Morrell Forest Landscape Signed lower right Pastel on paper 7 x 6 inches Wayne Beam Morrell (American, 1923–2013) was an American Impressionist painter and illustrator best k...

Siebe Johannes ten Cate (1858-1908) A Dune Landscape Signed lower right Pastel on paper 25.5 x 39.5 cm in good condition, very fresh, traces of pinholes in the upper corners barely...

Bob Peak is one of the true giants of post-war American Illustration. He is a virtuoso artist, with a heightened level of skill and talent that very few living artists today possess...

An unfinished but spirited plein-air composition of what appears to be the Shenandoah or Potomac River valley with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. Watercolor on board with...

Siebe Johannes Ten Cate (1858-1908) Bruges, windmill canal, 1894, Signed, located and dated 94 lower right Pastel on paper 27 x 41 cm in good condition, very fresh, Framed under g...

A native of Philadelphia, John Pierce Barnes began his artistic training at the Philadelphia School of Industrial Design. He then attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, ...

Pierre Carrier-Belleuse 1851-1932 French Danseuse Signed “Pierre Carrier-Belleuse” (lower right) Pastel on canvas Strikingly elegant, this extraordinary pastel by French impressi...

Siebe Johannes ten Cate (1858-1908) Mill and sailboat in the moonlight, Signed lower rigt Pastel on paper 40 x 31 cm Framed under glass : 52 x 44 cm Our pastel is listed in the ...

Susan Grisell Gardening in the Country, circa 1990 Signed lower right Pastel on paper 6 x 8 5/8 inches 11 3/8 x 16 inches mat Following the guidance of her long-time teacher and me...

Storm on the horizon

Robert Philipp, 'Rehearsal, "Long Day's Journey Into Night" ', color pastel, c. 1957. Unsigned. A fine, atmospheric rendering, on warm gray charcoal paper; a reinforced crease (1/2 inch) across the bottom left sheet corner; otherwise in very good condition. Image and sheet size 17 1/2 x 21 3/4 inches. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Provenance: Art Students League, from the artist’s personal portfolio. ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Philipp (1895–1981) was a celebrated American Post-Impressionist painter known for his nudes, still lifes, and portraits. Noted art critic Henry McBride named Philipp one of America's top six painters of his generation. Philipp was an instructor of painting at the Art Students League, New York, for 33 years. Philipp was Secretary of the National Academy of Design, a National Academician, and a Benjamin Franklin Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts in London. His composition and painting style has been compared to the art of Edgar Degas and Pierre Auguste Renoir. In 1940, Philipp was invited to Los Angeles by Hollywood producer Louis B. Mayer to paint portraits of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie stars. The same year, Walter Wanger, producer of ‘The Long Voyage Home’, directed by John Ford and based on plays by Eugene O'Neill, contracted with Reeves Lewenthal, head of the Associated American Artists gallery in Manhattan, to bring nine well-known artists to the set and paint scenes from the movie and portraits of the actors in character. The artists included Robert Philipp, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, Ernest Fiene, George Schreiber, Luis Quintanilla...

Wayne Morrell Mountain Landscape Signed lower left Pastel on paper 5 3/8 x 8 3/8 inches Wayne Beam Morrell (American, 1923–2013) was an American Impressionist painter and illustrat...

Cirker: Female Figure by Walter K. Gutman, American (1903–1986) Date: circa 1965 Pastel on Paper, signed l.r. Size: 26 in. x 20 in. (66.04 cm x 50.8 cm)

She sits quietly, almost inaudibly, as if afraid to frighten her own fairy tale. Her red polka-dot dress flows in soft folds like poppy petals in the wind, and her bare feet barely t...