Musée d’Orsay · 1867
Portrait of Frédéric Bazille Painting
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Renoir painted his friend and fellow painter Frédéric Bazille at work at his easel, in the Paris studio the two shared with several other future Impressionists — a direct reply to a portrait Bazille had painted of Renoir that same year.
Why it matters
Renoir painted his friend and fellow painter Frédéric Bazille at work at his easel, in the Paris studio the two shared with several other future Impressionists — a direct reply to a portrait Bazille had painted of Renoir that same year.
Look closer
Look closely at what Bazille is painting on his own easel within the picture — Renoir includes it as a painting-within-a-painting, a small joke between two artist friends who painted each other constantly.
Bazille was killed in battle in the Franco-Prussian War just three years later, at only 28 — making this a rare, direct record of him at work, painted by a friend who would go on to help found Impressionism without him.
Value context
ELYIO places this work in an indicative editorial context of €4–8 million.
The museum work is not for sale. This is ELYIO indicative context—not an appraisal, insurance value or offer.