Eugène Murer (Hyacinthe-Eugène Meunier, 1841–1906)

The sitter ran a pastry shop and restaurant on a Paris boulevard, and in the lean 1870s that made him something the Impressionists badly needed, a paying customer. Eugène Murer bought their canvases when almost no one else would, and by 1887 he had gathered around 122 of them, including 15 by Renoir, whom he called the greatest artist of the century. He also drove a hard bargain and paid very little, which the painters accepted because they had rent to make. Renoir has him lean on his hand, watchful and a little guarded, the look of a man who sizes up value. Murer later moved out to Auvers-sur-Oise, next door to Doctor Gachet, the other great collector Van Gogh would paint in much this same thoughtful pose.