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Lot Essay
'When he paints a portrait he asks his model to behave normally, to sit as she usually sits, to dress as she usually dresses, so that nothing smacks of constraint or artificial preparation' (C. Bailey, Renoir's Portraits, Impression of an Age, Ottawa, 1997, p. 20).
In these female studies Renoir paints with sympathy and sensibility but never submits to the negative constraints of portraiture: 'Without judgement, he captures the presence of his model. As he viewed it, the face was the eyes and the mouth - the rest was but a caress. The eyes and the mouth enclose the beauty and femininity of a woman, while being the portals of the human being leading towards the soul and into the flesh' (M. Florisone, Renoir, London, 1942, p. 26).
Renoir immediately sought for what was most living, and most personal. What, indeed, he sought to disclose when painting a woman was that which still remained in her from the child within - the luminous softness of the skin, her delicate flesh, and the character of her inner youth. As George Rivière was to comment, 'In Renoir's figure painting, portraiture deserves a place unto itself. For no other artist has looked so deeply into his sitter's soul, nor captured its essence with such economy' (C. Bailey, op. cit., p. 1).
In these female studies Renoir paints with sympathy and sensibility but never submits to the negative constraints of portraiture: 'Without judgement, he captures the presence of his model. As he viewed it, the face was the eyes and the mouth - the rest was but a caress. The eyes and the mouth enclose the beauty and femininity of a woman, while being the portals of the human being leading towards the soul and into the flesh' (M. Florisone, Renoir, London, 1942, p. 26).
Renoir immediately sought for what was most living, and most personal. What, indeed, he sought to disclose when painting a woman was that which still remained in her from the child within - the luminous softness of the skin, her delicate flesh, and the character of her inner youth. As George Rivière was to comment, 'In Renoir's figure painting, portraiture deserves a place unto itself. For no other artist has looked so deeply into his sitter's soul, nor captured its essence with such economy' (C. Bailey, op. cit., p. 1).