Art: Renoir for the Masses

Renoir had covered the canvas with small oil sketches, probably to use up the paints remaining on his palette at the end of a day’s work. With a secret finger-flick signal, Manhattan Dealer Victor Hammer bid $28,500 for it at the Kirkeby auction (TIME, Dec. 1), and got it. The next step was to find a good sharp razor blade; Hammer’s Renoir would never be the same again.

Originally it included two larger sketches at the left, but a Paris dealer long ago snipped those off to sell separately. Last week Hammer sliced the 21¼-in.-by-17½-in.. canvas into eight jigsaw pieces. Squared off by means of appropriately tinted new canvas and relined, they would be framed and sold as eight little Renoirs. “This,” he exclaimed, rubbing his hands with almost infectious glee, “is Renoir for the masses!”

Dividends for bargain hunters at the big-names counter: a wide choice of real, genuine, hand-painted Renoir oils, one of them signed, for as little as $500 per square inch. Prospective dividend for Dealer Hammer on his $28,500 investment: a tidy $15,000, or 50%.