
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009147About the Artwork
This painting may be Renoir's earliest signed canvas. Its sensitive display of color and light communicates an ideal of delicate, youthful beauty. The luminous tones of the background drapery and of the child's white blouse result from the artist's careful observation of reflected light and color on translucent materials. The delicate nuances of color, particularly in the young girl's face, reveal Renoir's previous training as a decorator of porcelain. He painted this portrait, commissioned by the vacationing Lacaux family, during his stay at an artist's colony in the village of Barbizon, near Paris.
Inscriptions
Signed center right: a. renoir / 1864
Provenance
Lacaux family, Paris, France Edmond Decap, Paris, France, by descent to Mme. Maruice Barret-Decap -1929: Mme. Maurice Barret-Decap, Paris, France 1929-1941: (Drouot, Paris, France, December 12, 1929, lot 12, Barret-Decap Sale, sold to Roger Berheim) by 1941: (Roger Bernheim, Paris, France, sold to Jacques Seligmann & Co.,) 1941-1942: (Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, NY, December 2, 1941, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1942-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943). Twenty-one Masterpieces by Seven Great Masters. Rosenberg & Co. (organizer) (November 15-December 1, 1948). Art, A Means to World Understanding. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 16-April 10, 1949). A Loan Exhibition of Renoir for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary. Wildenstein & Co. (organizer) (March 22-April 29, 1950). 35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951). In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958). Youthful Works by Great Artists. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (organizer) (March 10-30, 1963). Style, Truth and the Portrait. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 1-November 19, 1963). Renoir. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (February 3-April 1, 1973). L'Art en France Sours Le Second Empire (Art in France Under the Second Empire). Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (organizer) (October 1-November 26, 1978); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (January 28-March 18, 1979); Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (May 11-August 13, 1979). Renoir. Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (January 30-April 21, 1985); Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (May 14-September 2, 1985); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (October 9, 1985-January 5, 1986). Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991). Les Origines de l'Impressionnisme. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (April 19-August 8, 1994); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (September 19, 1994-January 8, 1995). Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age. National Gallery of Canada (organizer) (June 27-September 14, 1997); The Art Institute of Chicago (October 17, 1997-January 4, 1998); Kimbell Art Museum (February 8-April 26, 1998). Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections. The Baltimore Museum of Art (organizer) (October 10, 1999-January 30, 2000); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (March 25-May 7, 2000); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (May 28-July 30, 2000). Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 25-June 29, 2003). Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 29, 2005). Renoir's Women. Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (organizer) (September 23, 2005-January 15, 2006). Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919)
- Date
- 1864
- Medium
- oil on fabric
- Dimensions
- Framed: 106.7 x 89.2 x 8.9 cm (42 x 35 1/8 x 3 1/2 in.); Unframed: 81.3 x 65 cm (32 x 25 9/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Gift of the Hanna Fund
- Accession no.
- 1942.1065
More by Pierre-Auguste Renoir in museum collections
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