Christie’s has announced the auction of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s *La femme aux lilas (Portrait de Nini Lopez)*, which is expected to fetch between $25 million and $35 million, per artnews.com.
The 1876–77 masterpiece will feature in the 20th Century Evening Sale on 18 May, marking its first appearance on the auction block in nearly a century.
The painting has remained in the private collection of the Whitney Payson family since 1929. Joan Whitney Payson and her husband, Charles Payson, originally purchased the work for $100,000. It subsequently passed to their daughter, Lorinda Payson de Roulet, who died in November 2025. This sale includes nine pieces from de Roulet’s estate.
The artwork depicts Nini Lopez, a prominent Parisian actress and frequent subject for Renoir. Clasping a bouquet of flowers, the portrait is considered a definitive example of the artist’s Impressionist style. Max Carter, Christie’s global chairman of 20th and 21st-century art, noted the family’s significant role in American art history, citing their foundational influence on institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art.
While the $35 million valuation represents a significant market event, it remains below the artist’s standing auction record. In 1990, another Renoir work formerly owned by the family, *Bal du Moulin de la Galette*, sold for $78.1 million. Nevertheless, curators describe *La femme aux lilas* as one of the most important works by the artist to reach the market in recent decades.
The Whitney family’s influence on the American art landscape is extensive; Joan Whitney Payson was a prolific collector and founder of the New York Mets, while her aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, founded the Whitney Museum of American Art. The sale of this portrait highlights the dispersal of one of the 20th century’s most storied private collections.
•Featured image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, “La femme aux lilas (Portrait de Nini Lopez),” 1876–1877, courtesy Christie’s
