Description
A young girl stands full-length against a plain brownish-gray backdrop, her body turned slightly to one side while her face and eyes come around to meet the viewer. Her hair falls loose past her shoulders in soft brown waves with a fringe cut straight across her forehead.
She is dressed for a formal sitting: a dark velvet dress with a wide, ornate lace collar edged in blue, tied at the throat with a pale blue ribbon bow, and matching lace cuffs at the wrists. A long blue sash winds around her waist and hangs loose down one side, and her legs are covered in blue stockings that end in small black buttoned shoes. Her hands are clasped together at her front, fingers interlaced, in the stiff, patient way children hold a pose.
The brushwork here is tighter and more careful than the loose, flickering touch Renoir is known for in his outdoor scenes. The lace is picked out thread by thread in small dabs of white and blue, the face is smoothly modeled with barely visible strokes, and only the background is left broadly brushed, a warm, undefined haze of brown and gray that keeps all the attention on the girl.
What carries the picture is the color contrast: a near-black dress and a muddy brown ground against which the blue sash, blue stockings, and white lace ring out with real clarity. The palette is otherwise restrained, almost somber, which makes those cool blue accents feel deliberate rather than decorative.
At full size on a wall this reads as a quiet, upright figure, calm and self-possessed rather than sweet or sentimental, the kind of portrait that holds a room by standing still in it.
