Renoir painting “Paysage Bords de Seine” in The Potomack Company’s upcoming September 29 auction. Photo Credit: The Potomack Company Auctions and Appraisals. Source: The New York Times
The sort of find that powers indefatigable flea market enthusiasts, the painting above, believed to be Renoir’s “Paysage Bords de Seine,” was bought in a Virginia flea market for less than $50 as part of a box lot. The Potomack Company, based in Alexandria, VA is scheduled to auction off the small river scene on Sept. 29 at a valuation between $75,000 and $100,000. The owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, brought the painting to Potamack and after careful research, the company’s fine arts specialist Anne Norton Craner became convinced it was in fact, the real thing. “You just see it and you know it’s right,” said Ms. Craner to the New York Times.
Craner traced the painting back to Renoir’s definitive catalogue of work and found it was purchased from the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in France in 1925 and eventually sold to Herbert May, the husband of Sadie A. May, a well-known collector in Maryland. As of yet, it is unclear how the painting then found its way to a box lot of trinkets in the Shenandoah Valley, VA, but such is the stuff that flea market dreams are made of. You can read the full story as reported by the New York Times on Sept. 7, 2012, here.
