Commissioned Work

EDMONTON @ THIS MOMENT IN TIME is an inspired collection of 365 charcoal drawings of Edmonton historical sites and landmarks as at the year 2000 (Y2K).  They were created by Pierre R. Renoir, the great-grandson of Pierre-Auguste Renoir and an accomplished artist in his own right. The initial intent was to create a limited edition dotcom directory and reference source that would also serve as a day timer with the URL information of all the leading edge companies at that time that had embraced the Internet.  Over 1,100 photographs were taken of the city and the artist was given the liberty to select from these the 365 historical sites and images he wished to draw.  Sadly … and as unbelievable as this sounds today, there were nowhere close to 365 forward thinking local companies and institutions in Edmonton that had embraced the Internet at that time!  The idea was conceived by Majella Morin and this collection was a commissioned work.    It took Renoir six months to draw all 365 drawings and the entire collection was exhibited only once for a period of two weeks at the La Ronde revolving restaurant on top of the then Chateau Lacombe Hotel. The images on all the charcoal drawings are 5” x 7” drawn on 25.5 lb acid free paper – some in portrait format, most in landscape format.  A catalogue of the entire collection was printed and accompanies each artwork.  Each drawing is framed in a grey metal frame, double matted, white over gray and marked with an emblem of authenticity.  The framed pieces are 11” x 13”.    The collection was initially appraised at $400,000.  It is no longer an intact collection as 79 pieces of the collection have been sold.