Who & Who?

"I have always been anxious," said Pierre Auguste Renoir, "to paint women as beautiful fruits." One of his favorites was Gabrielle, his son "Coco's" rosy-cheeked nurse. Over the years, gallery-goers have seen scores of Gabrielles. Last week the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco proudly put on display one it was sure the public had never seen.

The painting had reached the U.S. in the typical roundabout of forgotten masterpieces, after a journey that began in 1909 when Renoir's own dealer, Ambroise Vollard, sold it to a collector from Germany. The picture dropped out of sight, remained in private hands until last year.

The legion had reason to be proud of its acquisition, for the experts seemed agreed that it was certainly one of Renoir's best. As delicate as a watercolor, it showed a buxom girl watching a bare-bottomed little boy as he petted his cat. Renoir never titled it, but Vollard had supplied a painstakingly descriptive one: Woman Guiding a Child's First Steps Toward a Chair on Which There Is a Kitten. The legion, with the blessings of the experts, called it simply Coco and Gabrielle.

At week's end the legion and the experts suffered a mild shock. Gabrielle, now in her 70s and living near Los Angeles, announced that she was definitely not the girl in the picture. As for the little boy, it couldn't be Coco because he was never that plump. Gabrielle even wondered whether the painting might be a forgery. "Even the Louvre," said she, "can sometimes be fooled by clever people."

The experts quickly dismissed the idea of forgery: Vollard's records amply proved that the work was Renoir's. But who were the girl and the bare-bottomed boy?

That, conceded the experts, might have to remain an unanswered question. And San Francisco might have to be satisfied with Woman Guiding a Child's First Steps, etc.

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