Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919)
La Rêveuse (The Dreamer)
1879
Oil on canvas, 51.1 x 61.9 cm
Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis
This vibrant, colorful work depicts a young, unidentified model that Pierre Auguste Renoir painted at his studio in the Montmartre district of Paris. He used his characteristically feathery brushwork, particularly in his representation of the background floral wallpaper. The mild eroticism of the sitter’s gaze—the English painter Walter Richard Sickert later described this as a “saucy” portrait—is enhanced by the way in which she idly places her finger in her mouth. (SLAM)