Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919)
Eugène Murer (Hyacinthe-Eugène Meunier)
1877
Oil on canvas, 47 x 39.4 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Murer was an artist, celebrated pastry cook, restaurateur, novelist, poet, and avid collector of Impressionist paintings. By 1887, ten years after he sat for this portrait, he had amassed some 122 works by his painter-friends, including 15 by Renoir, whom he called “the greatest artist of our century.” It has been suggested that Murer’s pose and gaze in this work served as a model for Van Gogh’s famous portrait of another great Impressionist collector, Dr. Paul-Ferdinand Gachet (private collection), Murer’s neighbor in Auvers. (MET)
See also:
• Murer, Eugène (1841-1906)