Laundress and Her Child (Aline and Pierre)
c. 1886
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919)
Drawings
Laundress and Her Child (Aline and Pierre), c. 1886. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919). Pastel on brown paper; sheet: 81.5 x 65 cm (32 1/16 x 25 9/16 in.); mounted: 82.6 x 65.9 cm (32 1/2 x 25 15/16 in.); framed: 99 x 82.5 x 4.2 cm (39 x 32 1/2 x 1 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Alexander Ginn 1977.167 In this idealization of motherhood and rural life, Auguste Renoir depicted his future wife, Aline Charigot, with their son Pierre. Bright colors, including warm orange and yellow, are contrasted with cool blues and greens to create a dramatic impact. Renoir took full advantage of pastel’s unique optical properties, in which minute, irregular particles diffusely reflect light, allowing for an unparalleled velvety brilliance that is perfectly suited to portray the youthful bloom of the woman and child. Auguste Renoir also realized this composition as a painting in oil on canvas which is in the collection of the Barnes Foundation today.
- Maker/Artist
- Renoir, Pierre-Auguste
- Classification
- Drawing
- Formatted Medium
- pastel on brown paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 81.5 x 65 cm (32 1/16 x 25 9/16 in.); Mounted: 82.6 x 65.9 cm (32 1/2 x 25 15/16 in.); Framed: 99 x 82.5 x 4.2 cm (39 x 32 1/2 x 1 5/8 in.)
- Inscribed
- Inscription: stamped, lower right, in black ink: Renoir [Lugt 2137b]
- Departments
- Drawings
- Accession Number
- 1977.167
- Credit Line
- Bequest of Alexander Ginn
- Exhibitions
- Year in Review for 1984, Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in Nineteenth-Century Paris, Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art
- Rights Statement
- CC0
- Museum Location
- 101A Prints & Drawings
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