Portrait of a Girl

Born into a working-class family, Renoir took up portrait painting as a means of support, lacking the resources of his fellow Impressionists. For the rest of his career, Renoir continued to paint portraits, including this one, part of a series of depictions of his wife's cousin and his children's nanny, Gabrielle Renard. Here, the tousled Renard looks away from the beholder, her rosy cheeks swelling as she appears about to exhale. Portrait of a Girl belongs not to the artist's commissions, but to those intimate works Renoir created out of an urge to capture his sitters' unique attributes.