Madame Renoir

By 1910 the Renoirs were living on an old olive farm called Les Collettes, on the hill above Cagnes-sur-Mer near Nice. Renoir had bought the land in 1907 after hearing that a buyer meant to fell the ancient olive trees and build on the terraces, and the property came with tenants, a farmhouse and a press. Aline Charigot ran the place. She had arrived in Paris from Essoyes in Champagne as a dressmaker, modelled for him through the 1880s, and married him in 1890, by which time their first son was three. The Wadsworth's picture is also known as Madame Renoir and Bob, after the dog. She was about 50 here and diabetic, and she died in 1915 at 56, days after travelling north to see one of their sons, wounded at the front.