Renoir, Claude at Play

With long hair tied back, the child in this painting might look like a girl at first glance, but he is Claude, Renoir's third son, born when the painter was already past sixty. The work captures Renoir's late-career style well.

Warm reds and oranges spread across the canvas, conjuring soft light and atmosphere, while the background is swept in with quick, loose strokes that blur into the distance — much like the way a camera's focus on a subject softens everything behind it.

Unlike his more carefully posed portraits, here Renoir made no effort to direct the child's posture, instead capturing him exactly as he played. The result feels unusually natural and unguarded. Renoir painted his sons often, and several such works, including this one, can be found at the Orangerie.