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I fell in love when I was 16 years old with Pierre-Auguste Renoir's painting, A Girl With A Watering Can.
It was displayed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. when I saw it. I purchased a postcard print of the painting. I still treasure that postcard print 49 years later.
The Impressionist painting, A Girl With A Watering Can, was painted by Renoir in 1876. Renoir apparently painted it in Monet's famous garden at Argenteuil, France.
Argenteuil, France
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http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/impr_intro.shtm
Map and Forecast
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http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/Argenteuil
The girl wearing the blue dress holding the watering can is Mademoiselle Leclere. She is probably the daughter of one of the customers of Renoir's works, and most likely upper class.
Mademoiselle Leclere must have posed for quite a long time for the portrait. The little girl is not looking directly at the audience, so although the picture was posed, it has a snapshot effect.
Rather than blend his colors, Renoir applied them in individual touches that dissolve edges that seem to shimmer with light.
National Gallery of Art
Washington, D.C.
|
Auguste Renoir (artist) French, 1841 - 1919 A Girl with a Watering Can, 1876 oil on canvas overall: 100 x 73 cm (39 3/8 x 28 3/4 in.) framed: 125.7 x 97.5 x 6.9 cm (49 1/2 x 38 3/8 x 2 11/16 in.) Chester Dale Collection 1963.10.206 On View |
This painting has long been a favorite of visitors to the National Gallery of Art -- and it seems that Renoir painted it with exactly this hope, that it would please a large audience.
The first impressionist exhibition, in 1874, had brought Renoir and his fellow artists more notoriety than business, and the auction he optimistically organized for his own work the following year was a financial disaster. Unlike Cassatt, who had family wealth, Renoir, the son of a tailor, was in a constant struggle for money in his early career. He began to paint charming, light-filled scenes with women and children, like this one, in the hopes of increasing sales. He probably thought that the pretty child in her fancy dress might also attract portrait commissions.
Although it was landscape that had provided the first, and most important, inspiration for impressionism, Renoir's instinct always led him back to the figure.
The deep blue of the dress, the bright red of the bow and the girl's lips, and the cool greens of the lush garden behind her are all given a prismatic brilliance by Renoir's brushwork. Rather than blend his colors, Renoir has applied them in individual touches that dissolve edges and seem to shimmer with light.
Impressionism sought to capture the effect of light on the senses, communicating a visual signal with each stroke of the brush.
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http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg83/gg83-46681.html
From Wikipedia
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Girl_with_a_Watering_Can
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|
| Artist | Pierre-Auguste Renoir |
|---|---|
| Year | 1876 |
COLOR YOUR OWN VERSION OF THE PAINTING
 |
| Color your own version of A Girl With A Watering Can. |
Visit Monet's Garden
CLICK on the link or COPY & PASTE a link in your browser:
http://giverny.org/gardens/fcm/visitgb.htm
Approximately 500 000 visitors discover Monet's gardens each year
during the seven months that it is open.
The
Two Gardens
There are two parts in Monet's garden:
a flower garden called Clos
Normand
in front of the house
and a Japanese inspired water garden on the other
side
of the road.
The two parts of Monet's garden contrast and
complement
one another.
Someday I will see A Girl With A Watering Can again.
Someday I will visit Monet's Garden.
How about you?
What's your favorite painting?
Where do you dream of visiting?
"In 1890 he married Aline Victorine Charigot, who, along with a number of the artist's friends, had already served as a model for Les Déjeuner des canotiers (Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881), and with whom he had already had a child, Pierre, in 1885. After his marriage Renoir painted many scenes of his wife and daily family life, including their children and their nurse, Aline's cousin Gabrielle Renard. The Renoirs had three sons, one of whom, Jean, became a filmmaker of note and another, Pierre, became a stage and film actor."
Where do you dream of visiting?
I wonder.
Did Pierre Auguste Renoir have a daughter?
Renoir's official biography states that Renoir and his wife, Aline, had three sons.
"In 1890 he married Aline Victorine Charigot, who, along with a number of the artist's friends, had already served as a model for Les Déjeuner des canotiers (Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881), and with whom he had already had a child, Pierre, in 1885. After his marriage Renoir painted many scenes of his wife and daily family life, including their children and their nurse, Aline's cousin Gabrielle Renard. The Renoirs had three sons, one of whom, Jean, became a filmmaker of note and another, Pierre, became a stage and film actor."
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http://www.pierre-auguste-renoir.org/biography.html
Did Pierre Auguste Renoir have a daughter?
I wonder because the little girl in my favorite painting, A Girl With A Watering Can, looks a lot like the little girl in Renoir's Little Girl With a Spray of Flowers, and a lot like the little girl in The Umbrellas.
Here's an interesting post about The Umbrellas from
a woman named Patricia McGoldrick. Patricia thinks a shop girl is the
focus of the painting, who catches the attention of the man behind her
in the painting (maybe Renoir himself), and then the man looks away.
Patricia McGoldrick wrote about a shop girl in The Umbrellas:
"Yet she is the beauty and the main focus of the painting.
She has just
caught the attention of the man immediately behind her,
who may be Renoir
himself,
the likeness is not dissimilar,
and looks away modestly from his gaze.
"
I wonder.
My eye is drawn to the little girl in the painting, The Umbrellas. She is looking directly at me...at the audience. It appears to me that the man (Renoir?) is glancing at the little girl.
See for yourself.
 |
| A Girl With A Watering Can by Pierre Auguste Renoir |
The Umbrellas
(Les Parapluies)
1883
 |
| www.pierre-auguste-renoir.org |
The Umbrellas
(Les Parapluies)
1883
Information about painting
Dimensions:
|
115 x 180 cm
|
|
Type:
|
Oil on canvas
|
|
The
National Gallery, London, UK
|
||
Shop:
|
||
When I was a child (over forty
years ago), this painting used to hang in the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, and my
mother used to take me to see it.
She told me that the main figure was a milliner’s assistant, carrying a milliner’s basket, who was probably out on an errand delivering a hat to a wealthy customer. The basket is closed with a black lacquered lid, to protect the hat, and the girl’s hand is reflected in the shiny black of its lacquered cover.
While all the other figures in the painting wear hats, the assistant, a mere shop-girl, wears none, nor does she carry an umbrella to protect her from the rain. Her dress is drab and unadorned in dramatic contrast with the elegant finery of the other figures, who all clearly come from a much higher social strata.
Yet she is the beauty and the main focus of the painting. She has just caught the attention of the man immediately behind her, who may be Renoir himself, the likeness is not dissimilar, and looks away modestly from his gaze.
In the painting, Renoir captures the moment, by putting us, the viewer, right in the middle of the scene, focusing our attention on the girl with the downward sweep of the opened and half opened umbrellas.
This account has always framed my understanding of the picture and made it live for me as one of my favorite paintings.
Patricia McGoldrick
She told me that the main figure was a milliner’s assistant, carrying a milliner’s basket, who was probably out on an errand delivering a hat to a wealthy customer. The basket is closed with a black lacquered lid, to protect the hat, and the girl’s hand is reflected in the shiny black of its lacquered cover.
While all the other figures in the painting wear hats, the assistant, a mere shop-girl, wears none, nor does she carry an umbrella to protect her from the rain. Her dress is drab and unadorned in dramatic contrast with the elegant finery of the other figures, who all clearly come from a much higher social strata.
Yet she is the beauty and the main focus of the painting. She has just caught the attention of the man immediately behind her, who may be Renoir himself, the likeness is not dissimilar, and looks away modestly from his gaze.
In the painting, Renoir captures the moment, by putting us, the viewer, right in the middle of the scene, focusing our attention on the girl with the downward sweep of the opened and half opened umbrellas.
This account has always framed my understanding of the picture and made it live for me as one of my favorite paintings.
Patricia McGoldrick
Posted by Patricia McGoldrick
on 05. February 2012. at 10:00
The Umbrellas
(Les Parapluies)
1883
Information about painting
Dimensions:
|
115 x 180 cm
|
|
Type:
|
Oil on canvas
|
|
The
National Gallery, London, UK
|
||
Shop:
|
||
I wonder.
Did Pierre Auguste Renoir have a daughter?
Someone sometime identified the girl wearing wearing the blue dress holding the watering can in Renoir's painting as Mademoiselle Leclere, and surmised that she was probably the daughter of one of Renoir's customers.
Is the same little girl, Mademoiselle Leclere, in Renoir's other paintings?
Was Mademoiselle Leclere Renoir's own daughter?
I
heard stories were told about Renoir having a daughter. Some stories
say she died at a young age. Some stories say she lived near Paris,
visiting the places her father, Renoir, painted.
Maybe someday I'll visit France, and hear the stories myself.
I wonder
what secrets are waiting to be discovered in people's memories, in old
letters and postcards, and inscriptions on the backs of paintings?
I wonder.
Did Pierre Auguste Renoir have a daughter?
What do you think?
LITTLE GIRL
WITH A SPRAY OF FLOWERS
 |
| www.pierre-auguste-renoir.org |
Pierre Auguste Renoir
The Complete Works
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http://www.pierre-auguste-renoir.org/Little-Girl-With-A-Spray-Of-Flowers.html
Did Pierre Auguste Renoir have a daughter?
I wonder.
Their Pierre-Auguste Renoir page provides visitors with Renoir's bio, over 140 of his works, exclusive articles,
Thanks for stopping by!
Come back often, and invite a friend!
Louise at Artsy invited me to include a link on this blog
to Artsy's page on Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Their Pierre-Auguste Renoir page provides visitors with Renoir's bio, over 140 of his works, exclusive articles,
and up-to-date Renoir exhibition listings.
The page also
includes related artists and categories,
allowing viewers to discover art
beyond Artsy's Renoir page.
CLICK on the link or COPY & PASTE the link in your browser:
LINK: https://www.artsy.net/artist/pierre-auguste-renoir
Marcia Norwood
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories
in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories
in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking
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http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEVxoNHKRTFWQAMqBXNyoA?p=renoir+paintings+images&fr=mcafee&fr2=piv-web
 |
| Marcia (2 years old). Copyright 1951 Marcia Norwood |
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