Woman with a Hat

Leaving his "Ingresque" or "dry period" of the 1880s, this painting signals the beginning of Renoir's "pearl period." After turning briefly away from Impressionism and revisiting Classicism, Renoir took yet another new direction in the 1890s in his depiction of nude women and portraits in a soft touch style created with a rich color palette. Woman with a Hat is an example of this new style where all of the various colors have been blended with white, thereby producing a subtle, shining surface which then led to the name "the pearl period." The Mellon Collection in America includes a work that depicts the same clothing shown in a back three-quarter view. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.83)