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Lot Essay
Portraits of children were one of Renoir's favourite subjects and also one for which he was most sought after from the 1880s onwards, when he began to enjoy great commercial success with commissions to paint the children of leading patrons including the Lerolle and Bérard families. With the birth of his own children, especially his youngest son Claude, or 'Coco' in 1901, Renoir extended this interest in child portraiture to include non-commissioned portraits of family and friends.
Tête de fillette was a gift to the artist's friend Téodor de Wyzewa, a Franco-Polish art critic. Their two families often spent summers together in the South of France; as Renoir's son Jean recalled, 'I can see in my mind's eye the garden at Le Cannet, the palms and the orange trees; Téodor de Wyzewa and his daughter Mimi' (J. Renoir, Renoir, My Father, London, 1962, p. 376), who indeed may be the otherwise unidentified sitter for the portrait.
In this Tête de fillette, the downward cast eyes of the young girl, bow in her hair and book in her hand call to mind the 1890 series of paintings of young girls reading which culminated in oils including versions of La lecture now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris and The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia. However, in the sitter's absorption in her book, there emerges a greater sense of intimacy and spontaneity of execution than in those carefully posed portraits. This effect is further enhanced by a feathery handling of paint, most evident in her eyelashes, and the neutral background against which her rosy skin and red lips emerge in the sweeps of colour and luminous glazes that characterise the artist's later oils.
Tête de fillette was a gift to the artist's friend Téodor de Wyzewa, a Franco-Polish art critic. Their two families often spent summers together in the South of France; as Renoir's son Jean recalled, 'I can see in my mind's eye the garden at Le Cannet, the palms and the orange trees; Téodor de Wyzewa and his daughter Mimi' (J. Renoir, Renoir, My Father, London, 1962, p. 376), who indeed may be the otherwise unidentified sitter for the portrait.
In this Tête de fillette, the downward cast eyes of the young girl, bow in her hair and book in her hand call to mind the 1890 series of paintings of young girls reading which culminated in oils including versions of La lecture now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris and The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia. However, in the sitter's absorption in her book, there emerges a greater sense of intimacy and spontaneity of execution than in those carefully posed portraits. This effect is further enhanced by a feathery handling of paint, most evident in her eyelashes, and the neutral background against which her rosy skin and red lips emerge in the sweeps of colour and luminous glazes that characterise the artist's later oils.