IRENE CAHEN D?ˉANVERS, ALSO KNOWN AS LITTLE IRENE

Mlle Irene Cahen D’Anvers was one of the most impressionistic portraits of Pierre Auguste Renoir, which was a side-way portrait made for a famous banker’s daughter 8-year-old daughter Irene. The little Irene had a head of golden brown and fluffy hair which hung in her chest and waist. She was wearing a light blue dress, with her head wearing a small butterfly knot. She sat quietly and her hands put on the thighs. She looked very pale and her big eyes stared at the front, seeming to be preoccupied by some troubles. The whole painting’s color was very bright and the elegant painting techniques. The modeling was completed by a series of fine short stroke; there was no clear line on the screen. Against the dark background, the girl with the blonde hair was particularly bright.

It came to be regarded as a shining example of child portraiture, in which the artist combines elegant clothes and styled hair with the innocent expression of childhood. Especially appealing is the contrast between the flowing lines of loose red hair and swirling dabs of background foliage on the one hand and the finely elaborated features of the girl’s face on the other. The precision of the latter is a reminder that Renoir first worked as a painter of porcelain before studying further under the Swiss painter Charles Gleyre in Paris.