Renoir Among the Olives of Les Collettes
In 1907 an old, arthritic Pierre-Auguste Renoir bought a hillside estate above Cagnes-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera, for one main reason: to rescue its grove of centuries-old olive trees from being felled. He built a house among them and painted them, over and over, until he died. The grove still stands, and it is now his museum.
By 1907 Renoir was in his sixties, crippled by rheumatoid arthritis and painting with a brush half-strapped to his stiffening hand. That year he and his wife bought Les Collettes, a farm on a hill above the old town of Cagnes-sur-Mer, near Nice. The story goes that the trigger was the olive grove itself : the ancient trees on the land were under threat of being cut down, and Renoir bought the whole estate largely to save them. He was rescuing a grove as much as buying a home.
The trees that seduced a painter
Renoir was besotted with those olives. He loved how the light broke through the silvery leaves and fell dappled on the ground, how the gnarled old trunks twisted against the sky. In the estate’s final years his work returned again and again to the grove, its trees shimmering under the southern sun. For a painter obsessed with light on skin and leaf, an ancient olive grove was almost the perfect subject — endlessly various, never still, glowing at every hour.
A house built to spare the roots
The care went further than the brush. When the Renoirs built their neo-Provencal house on the land in 1908, the design worked around the old trees rather than clearing them — the grove came first. It is a small, telling act : a great painter arranging his own home so as not to disturb a stand of olives that had stood there for centuries before him and, he clearly hoped, would stand for centuries after. He treated the trees as the true owners of the ground. It echoes the reverence explored in the story of French olives.
The grove outlives the man
Renoir died at Les Collettes in 1919. In 1960 the town of Cagnes bought the estate and turned it into the Musee Renoir, keeping the studio much as he used it and, crucially, preserving the ancient olive grove that had drawn him there. The trees he bought a whole property to save are still alive, still catching the same Riviera light, still older than the paintings they inspired. Few artists have left so living a monument — not a canvas, but a grove.
| Painter | Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) |
|---|---|
| Estate | Les Collettes, Cagnes-sur-Mer |
| Bought | 1907 |
| Reason | To save its ancient olive grove |
| House built | 1908, around the trees |
| Now | Musee Renoir, grove preserved |
The takeaways
- Renoir bought Les Collettes in 1907 largely to save its ancient olive grove.
- He painted the trees repeatedly in his final years, loving their dappled light.
- His house was built around the old olives, not by clearing them.
- The estate is now the Musee Renoir, and the grove still stands.
Renoir’s olive grove: common questions
Why did Renoir buy Les Collettes?
Largely to save its grove of centuries-old olive trees, which were under threat of being felled.
When did he buy it?
In 1907, when he was in his sixties and severely affected by arthritis.
Did he paint the olives?
Yes, repeatedly in his last years — he was captivated by the light falling through the silvery leaves.
What is at Les Collettes now?
The Musee Renoir, which preserves his studio and the ancient olive grove that first drew him to the land.
Where is it?
Above the old town of Cagnes-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera near Nice.
Painters have loved olive trees before and since, but Renoir did something rarer : he bought a whole estate mostly to stop its old olives being cut down, then built his house so as not to disturb them. That is not a collector’s whim ; that is someone who understood what a centuries-old grove is worth. The trees outlasted him and became his monument. When people ask me why anyone gets sentimental about an olive tree, I point to Les Collettes — a great artist who decided the grove mattered more than the convenience of a clear building plot.
Drawn from accounts of the Musee Renoir at Les Collettes and the history of Renoir’s purchase of the estate in 1907.