Renoir masterpiece brought home
An original Renoir artwork, which was painted during the French artist’s time in Guernsey, has been acquired by a group of local art collectors, who will put it on display in the island later this year.
07 July 2020
Art for Guernsey has facilitated the acquisition of an original artwork by the famous Impressionist. An exhibition to allow islanders to engage and reconnect with this major part of our artistic heritage is to take place at Beau Sejour from 28 September - 6 October.
Renoir has a special significance for Guernsey as the artist spent just over a month on the island in 1883 and worked on 15 paintings during his stay, the majority depicting views of Moulin Huet.
Last year Art for Guernsey celebrated his importance to our island by putting together the Renoir Walk. Planning permission was recently granted to make the Renoir Walk a permanent fixture in the Moulin Huet valley.
Energised by the overwhelming enthusiasm from the community to the walk and Renoir’s legacy, the Art for Guernsey team has sought to further capitalise upon the artist’s importance to the island by syndicating a group of local art collectors to acquire one of his original paintings. Rochers de Guernesey avec personnages (plage à Guernesey) is widely considered to be one of the best pieces Renoir painted during his stay and is one of just five of the original ‘Guernsey-painted’ pieces still in private hands; the other 10 sit in major museum collections, which include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery in London and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
Art for Guernsey is putting together an innovative exhibition that will take place at Beau Sejour from 28 September - 6 October. Entry will be free of charge.
David Ummels concluded: ‘We are bringing back this artwork where it belongs for the right reasons, namely to inspire the children and the local community, support the local tourism industry and, in the future, curate an international exhibition highlighting how Guernsey played a key role inspiring Renoir’s career. We would like to express our thanks to the art collectors who came together for the common good of Guernsey, and we look forward to celebrating with islanders in the autumn at our exciting show.
Notes to editors
Art for Guernsey is a charitable initiative managed by a team of passionate professionals who share a belief in the transformative power of art to bring communities together, provide educational opportunities and promote cultural diplomacy. Each year Art for Guernsey invites an internationally renowned artist to visit and be inspired by Guernsey, and to produce related artworks to constitute an artistic legacy for the island. Art in School, our innovative art lending programme, makes available artworks of museum quality to any Guernsey school willing to develop project-based learning opportunities and use the artworks in a multidisciplinary context (creative writing, geography, science, maths, history, technology and so on). This innovative art-lending programme has been incredibly successful: to date 18 Guernsey schools
have engaged with the initiative. Art for Guernsey also has a strong remit to support local artists in various ways and to invest its resources to support various innovative art and education-related local charitable projects.
For press enquiries, please contact Jon (Jock) Pettit: jock@spark.gg
