Young Girl in a Blue Dress

Auguste Renoir

ca. 1890 · Watercolor with gouache highlights on thick cream wove paper · Robert Lehman Collection

This watercolor is a masterpiece of spontaneous portraiture. The precise layering of watercolor and gouache creates delicate tonal variations in the context of a particularly unforgiving medium. Renoir’s deft handling of his watercolors brings the figure vibrantly to life. The sitter, who appears in several works by Renoir, may be Aline Charigot, the woman he married in 1885 and the mother of his first son, Pierre.

Artist

Auguste Renoir

Date

ca. 1890

Medium

Watercolor with gouache highlights on thick cream wove paper

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975