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Pierre-Auguste Renoir
France, 1841-1919
Jeune Femme dans les champs (Portrait of Madame Henriot,
the Actress), 1877
Oil on canvas
28 x 17 in.
The Aaron M. and Clara Weitzenhoffer Collection, 2000 |
Henriette Henriot (1857-1944) was Renoir’s
favorite model of the 1870s, and he painted her numerous times.
(A popular portrait, which also captures Henriot’s dark, penetrating
eyes, hangs in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) Henriot
probably posed for Renoir to earn money and to gain exposure, for
she would achieve her modest fame only after the late 1880s, when
she became known for her roles in light and often risqué
comedies.
Although Renoir’s portraits and genre
paintings (scenes of everyday life) of the 1870s are often similar,
the two categories in the artist’s oeuvre nevertheless remain
separate. In the portraits, Renoir emphasizes the individuality
of the sitters and observes decorum. Jeune Femme dans les champs
(Young Woman in a Field) should be regarded as genre: Madame
Henriot’s features are indistinct, and for a portrait, the
coquettish gesture of placing a finger on the mouth would be considered
lacking in propriety.
The ethereal Jeune Femme dans les champs
is thinly painted over a light ground, as is typical in Renoir’s
work of the mid-1870s. (See also Renoir’s
Les Roses of 1878.) With great economy, Henriot is loosely
blocked in, while an impasto (thickly applied paint) of white depicts
the dappled light on her dress and face. The present work may have
been painted en plein air (outdoors), a common practice of Renoir
during this period when his Impressionist style was reaching its
height.
The distinctions between Renoir’s
sketches and finished works of the 1870s are blurred. The signature
on Jeune Femme dans les champs indicates that Renoir considered
the painting finished.
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