Head of Young Girl (Tête de jeune fille)

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

Renoir painted children consistently throughout his career, winning him much admiration during his own lifetime and in the early decades of the 20th century. "Renoir asserts the dignity of the most fundamental things of life—summer sun, childhood, the beauty of flesh," wrote a critic for the Art Digest in 1935; another praised Renoir's ability to capture "the softness, the fleeting charm of the child." The latter observation holds especially true in this canvas. The pretty sitter, with her beribboned neck and partially exposed shoulder, is on the cusp of adolescence.

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