Description
A young girl bows her head in concentration, her dark hair pulled back, as she looks down at something held just out of view, most likely a book resting in her lap. She wears a white pinafore with pale blue accents over a rust-orange dress, the whole figure built up with thick, visible strokes of paint.
Renoir applies the paint here with unusual heaviness, ridges of white and cream standing up from the surface of the pinafore, giving the small canvas a tactile, sculptural quality rarely seen in his softer, more blended portraits. The warm oranges and browns of the background frame her rosy, downturned face.
This painting is available as a hand-painted oil reproduction or an archival canvas print, made to order in a range of sizes, with the composition housed at the National Gallery of Art.
