Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 'Head of a Girl', 1898
About the work
Overview
This painting of an unidentified young girl has sometimes been entitled 'Head of a Little Servant Girl'. In later years Renoir often used his servants as models, and this girl, seen in profile against a featureless backdrop, would have been among the youngest in service.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Head of a Girl
- Artist
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Artist dates
- 1841 - 1919
- Date made
- 1898
- Medium and support
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 27 × 20 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- On loan from Tate: Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941
- Inventory number
- L725
- Location
- Not on display
- Image copyright
- On loan from Tate: Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941, © 2000 Tate
- Collection
- Main Collection
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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We seem to be sitting in a box at the theatre with two young women, though we can’t be sure what is going on. We can’t see the stage and one of the women is looking away from us, the back of her bonnet hiding most of the other’s face. This sense of mystery is enhanced by the nearer woman’s pose,...
This picture, together with its companion piece Dancing Girl with Tambourine (also in the National Gallery’s collection), was made to decorate the dining room of the Paris apartment of one of Renoir’s most important clients, Maurice Gangnat. Of the two dancers, this figure has the more animated p...
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This picture, together with its companion piece Dancing Girl with Castanets (also in the National Gallery’s collection), was made to decorate the dining room of the Paris apartment of one of Renoir’s most important clients, Maurice Gangnat. Of the two dancers, this figure has the more static pose...
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A description on the reverse of this painting identifies it as a landscape near Annecy, a medieval town adjacent to a large lake in the Haute-Savoie region of France. The exact location has not been identified, however. As was usual in his landscapes, Renoir has used strong colour combinations, o...
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This is a portrait of Misia Sert, née Godebska, who was the darling of the highest artistic circles in France at the turn of the twentieth century. It is hard to overstate quite how glamorous and influential she was: the local newspapers dubbed her the 'Queen of Paris’. A talented pianist, she a...
This picture shows the view across Moulin Huet Bay on Guernsey. Renoir visited the island for six weeks in 1883, and this is one of a group of paintings he produced during his stay. He was starting to break away from some of the techniques of the Impressionist approach to landscape painting, whic...
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This sunlit scene on the river Seine is typical of the imagery that has come to characterise Impressionism, and Renoir includes several familiar Impressionist motifs such as fashionably dressed women, a rowing boat, a sail boat, and a steam train crossing a bridge. The exact location has not been...
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