RENOIR, Pierre-Auguste
(b, 1841, Limoges, d. 1919, Cagnes-sur-Mer)

Child with a Whip

1885
Oil on canvas, 105 x 75 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Although a commissioned work, this portrait of five-year-old Étienne Goujon, the son of a French senator, was painted en plein air and is entirely Impressionistic. The freshness of the summer garden envelops the boy, filling his smock with a play of reflected colours. Only the face, executed with a classically precise line, displays an unchildlike seriousness.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.