Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Young Woman Sewing

1879
Oil on canvas
61.4 × 50.5 cm (24.2 × 19.9 in)

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● On view now — Gallery 201

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · verified July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

The model for this elegant painting of a French bourgeois woman sewing may be Aline Charigot, whom Pierre-Auguste Renoir would go on to marry. The artist treated his domestic subject—a middle-class woman embroidering a textile—with vibrant color, light-filled atmosphere, and freely handled paint. Cobalt blue dominates the composition with striking contrasts of red and spare touches of yellow, relying on the optical effect produced by the close proximity of primary colors to enliven the composition and increase the sense of direct observation and spontaneity.

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