“Portrait of Misia Godebska-Sert” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

“Portrait of Misia Godebska-Sert” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir shows Misia Sert, née Godebska, who was a notable figure in the circle of artists in Paris at the turn of the century. She first married in 1903, and later she married the Spanish painter José Maria Sert, and it is as Misia Sert that she is most remembered. Misia Sert (1872 – 1950) was a pianist of Polish descent who hosted an artistic salon in Paris and was a patron and friend to numerous artists.

Misia Sert

Misia Sert, at age fifteen, argued with her stepmother, which caused her to leave home and move to London. After several months she returned to Paris, taking her lodgings and supporting herself by teaching piano to students. At the age of twenty-one, she married her twenty-year-old cousin. Their home eventually became a gathering place for such cultural lights as Marcel Proust, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Signac, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The entertainment was lavish, and all were mesmerized by the charm and youth of their hostess. Sert appeared in advertising posters created by Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Vuillard, and Pierre Bonnard, plus she featured in several Renoir portraits.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, commonly known as Auguste Renoir, was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, Renoir’s paintings are notable for their vibrant light and saturated color, most often focusing on people in intimate and candid compositions. In characteristic Impressionist style, Renoir suggested the details of a scene through freely brushed touches of color, so that his figures softly fuse with their surroundings.

He was a prolific artist who created several thousand paintings. The single most extensive collection of his works, about 181 pictures, is part of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

Portrait of Misia Godebska-Sert

• Title:              Portrait of Misia Godebska-Sert
• Artist:            Auguste Renoir
• Year:             1904
• Medium:       Oil on canvas
• Dimensions:  Height: 92.1 cm (36.2 in); Width: 73 cm (28.7 in)
• Museum:       National Gallery, London

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

• Name:           Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Born:             1841 – Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France
• Died:             1919 (aged 78) – Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France
• Nationality: French
• Movement:  Impressionism
• Famous Paintings:
  • Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette
  • Dance at Bougival
  • The Large Bathers
  • The Theater Box
  • Collette’s House in Cagnes
  • Luncheon of the Boating Party
  • In Summer
  • Country Dance
  • Two Sisters
  • Portrait of Misia Godebska-Sert
  • Pierre-Auguste Renoir

A Tour of the National Gallery, London

13th Century Paintings

• “The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Narrative Scenes” by Margarito d’Arezzo – 1264
• “The Virgin and Child” by Master of the Clarisse – 1268
• “Crucifix” by Master of Saint Francis – 1270

14th Century Paintings

• Wilton Diptych – 1395
• “The Annunciation” by Duccio – 1311
• “The Healing of the Man Born Blind” by Duccio – 1311

15th Century Paintings

• “Arnolfini Portrait” by Jan van Eyck –  1434
• “The Battle of San Romano” by Paolo Uccello– 1440
• “Venus and Mars” by Sandro Botticelli – 1483
• “Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan” by Giovanni Bellini– 1501

16th Century Paintings

• “Mystic Nativity” by Sandro Botticelli – 1550
• “Virgin of the Rocks” by Leonardo da Vinci – 1506
• “The Madonna of the Pinks” by Raphael – 1507
• “The Raising of Lazarus” by Sebastiano del Piombo– 1519
• “Salvator Mundi” by Andrea Previtali – 1519
• “Bacchus and Ariadne” by Titian – 1523
• “The Ambassadors” by Hans Holbein the Younger – 1533
• “Mary Magdalene” by Girolamo Savoldo – 1540
• “Saint George and the Dragon” by Tintoretto – 1558
• “The Family of Darius before Alexander” by Paolo Veronese – 1567
• “Diana and Actaeon” by Titian – 1569
• “The Rape of Europa” by Paolo Veronese – 1570
• “The Death of Actaeon” by Titian – 1575
• “The Origin of the Milky Way” by Tintoretto – 1575

17th Century Paintings

• “Supper at Emmaus” by Caravaggio – 1601
• “Samson and Delilah” by Peter Paul Rubens – 1610
• “Christ in the House of Martha and Mary” by Diego Velázquez – 1618
• “The Judgement of Paris” by Peter Paul Rubens – 1635
• “Aurora abducting Cephalus” by Peter Paul Rubens – 1637
• “Equestrian Portrait of Charles I” by Anthony van Dyck – 1638
• “Venus at her Mirror” by Diego Velázquez – 1651
• “The Courtyard of a House in Delft” by Pieter de Hooch – 1658
• “Self Portrait at the Age of 63” by Rembrandt – 1669
• “A Young Woman standing at a Virginal” by Johannes Vermeer – 1670

18th Century Paintings

• “Bacchus and Ariadne” by Sebastiano Ricci – 1713
• “A Regatta on the Grand Canal” by Canaletto – 1740
• “Mr. and Mrs. Andrews” by Thomas Gainsborough – 1749
• “Eton College” by Canaletto – 1754
• “An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump” by Joseph Wright of Derby – 1768
• “Self-portrait in a Straw Hat” by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun – 1782

19th Century Paintings

• “Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel” by Francisco Goya – 1805
• “The Emperor Napoleon I” by Horace Vernet – 1815
• “Dido Building Carthage” by J. M. W. Turner – 1815
• “Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows” by John Constable – 1831
• “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey” by Paul Delaroche – 1833
• “The Fighting Temeraire” by Joseph Mallord William Turner – 1839
• “Rain, Steam, and Speed – The Great Western Railway” by J. M. W. Turner – 1844
• “Cimabue’s Celebrated Madonna is carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence” by Frederic Leighton – 1855
• “Madame Moitessier” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres– 1856
• “The Gare St-Lazare” by Claude Monet – 1877
• “Bathers at Asnières” by Georges Seurat – 1884
• “Sunflowers” by Vincent van Gogh – 1888
• “Tiger in a Tropical Storm” by Henri Rousseau – 1891
• “After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself” by Edgar Degas – 1895
• “Boulevard Montmartre at Night” by Camille Pissarro – 1898

20th Century Paintings

• “Misia Sert” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir –  1904
• “Portrait of Hermine Gallia” by Gustav Klimt – 1904
• Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses) by  Paul Cézanne – 1905
• “Men of the Docks” by George Bellows –  1912
• “Water-Lilies” by Claude Monet (National Gallery, London) – 1916

Explore The National Gallery

• The National Gallery
• Masterpieces of The National Gallery
• The National Gallery, London – Crossword Puzzles

Reflections

• Did she ever imagine that her portraits would hang in some of the world’s leading museums?

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“One must, from time to time, attempt things that are beyond one’s capacity.”
– Pierre-Auguste Renoir

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Photo Credit: 1) Pierre-Auguste Renoir [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons