Promenade (La Promenade)

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FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

The child here is probably Renoir's youngest son, Claude, at about age four, strolling with his nursemaid, Renée Jolivet. He painted this portrait in Essoyes, a small village that was the hometown of Renoir's wife, Aline, and where the Renoir family often spent summers. The large canvas straddles the categories of genre and portraiture. When this painting was exhibited in Paris in 1906, one critic said it confirmed Renoir's evolution from an impressionist to an heir of the great European painting tradition.

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