Romaine Lacaux, Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Romaine Lacaux, Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Renoir painted this portrait early in his career, not long after having moved to Paris from Limoges in south-western France. During the first few years in Paris he met the painters Alfred Sisley and Claude Monet. All three painters became important members of the Impressionist movement.

This painting may be Renoir's earliest signed canvas. Its sensitive display of color and light communicates an ideal of delicate, youthful beauty. The luminous tones of the background drapery and of the child's white blouse result from the artist's careful observation of reflected light and color on translucent materials. The delicate nuances of color, particularly in the young girl's face, reveal Renoir's previous training as a decorator of porcelain. He painted this portrait, commissioned by the vacationing Lacaux family, during his stay at an artist's colony in the village of Barbizon, near Paris.