Summer

Lise Tréhot, Renoir’s mistress for several years, sat for him in various roles. On the one hand this portrait follows in the traditions of Romanticism with the sitter’s blouse slipping from her shoulder — although without erotic coquettishness — with her dark, tangled hair and the open, frontal pose which still avoids eye contact with the viewer. On the other hand the powerful plasticity of the form shows the influence of Courbet. The sunlight flickering through the background foliage, rendered with its broad brushstrokes, does not reach the sitter, who is lit only by the light in the studio.