Existing comment:
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pensive (La Songeuse), 1875
Renoir challenges our normal expectations of portraiture by showing his subject with her back to us. This view seems a formal device whereby he juxtaposes the rich range of blacks in the lower half of the painting with an explosion of color above. Renoir created this work around the time of the first Impressionist exhibition, and it is a classic example of his elegant subject matter and free brushwork at the time. |