As a kick off to another strong season for fine arts sales, M.S. Rau Antiques and Fine Arts in New Orleans will offer several significant Impressionist paintings during the Naples Art & Antique Show, February 9 to 13.  Starting its 100th year in the business, M.S. Rau continues to outpace its sales forecasts in the category of fine art.  Bill Rau, third generation owner of his family's business, continues to be positive about collectors' preferences for classic and respected artists like Claude Money and Vincent van Gogh, among others.   

"Die Voorazaan" by Claude Monet depicts a harbor scene painted in 1871 during the artist's travels to Holland.  The endless sky and sea scape underscores Monet's perfectionist skills at capturing landscapes "en plein air".  His was a naturalist and a master of color and shape so that when the viewer steps back from the canvas, everything blends together. 

"Town View of the Hague with the Nieuwe Kerk" by Vincent van Gogh (1882) is unique because it is a watercolor commissioned by van Gogh's uncle, the art dealer Cornelius Marnius van Gogh which is one of a 12-part series depicting the Hague.  A lonely figure, hunched over, traverses the field in front of the Hague.  Using a new medium-watercolor-van Gogh's slightly drab landscape still vibrates with color and tension. 

The splendid "La Balancoire" by Pierre-August Renoir (1895) is valued at $2.2M and is a masterpiece of pastel colors and a loose brushstroke, making its subject-a lady-all the more Renoir-esque. Renoir adored females and made them the subjects in most of his paintings.  As the youngest member of the Impressionist movement, Renoir began his artistic career in Limoges, his hometown, where he apprenticed in a porcelain factory.  He received accolades his entire life and left behind a legacy of some of the most prized and valued masterpieces from this era.  

These, and other masterpieces from the Impressionist era, can be viewed at www.rauantiques.com.