PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (after) Tête Maternité (Petit Buste de Madame Renoir).
Bronze with dark brown patina on a green marble base. 200x220x140 mm; 7 7/8x8 5/8x5 1/2 inches. Inscribed with the artist's name and numbered MA--XXIX/C, lower left verso, and inscribed "vesuvius" and "cire perdue" lower right verso.
A smaller, later reproduction of the same-titled bronze, conceived 1916-17 (see Haesaerts, Renoir Sculpteur, Brussels, 1947, no. 18, illustration of the plaster p. XXXVI).
This portrait was inspired by the sculpture Mère et Enfant of 1916, representing Madame Renoir with her child, which Renoir initially wanted to enlarge and place on his wife's tomb. The sculpture was never realized but the head was cast separately in a larger size.
