A previously unknown work by French impressionist painter Auguste Renoir of his toddler son Jean sold for 1.8 million euros ($2.08 million) at a Paris auction on Tuesday, the Drouot auction house told AFP.

The oil painting -- "L'enfant et ses jouets – Gabrielle et le fils de l'artiste, Jean" ("The Child and His Toys - Gabrielle and the son's artist, Jean") -- had never been exhibited or sold before.

It belonged to Jean's godmother Jeanne Baudot, a friend and student of Renoir's, who passed the painting on to her inheritors.

Believed to have been painted between 1890 and 1895, it features the artist's second son, who went on to become an Oscar-winning filmmaker, shown sitting with his nanny.

Pascal Perrin, an art historian and Renoir expert, lauded the "exceptional condition of the work

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