Renoir: faces and brushwork
Compare the carefully painted faces with the loose landscape in Two Sisters (On the Terrace).
Begin with the two figures
Renoir painted Two Sisters (On the Terrace) in 1881, at Chatou beside the Seine. Despite the title, the models were not sisters. The scene combines a close view of two people with a landscape beyond the terrace.
Before reading their expressions, notice how much space the figures occupy. The larger figure rises through the center of the canvas. The child appears beside her, closer to the basket. Look at how the two heads sit at different heights.
One painting, different kinds of marks
Compare a face with a patch of greenery behind the railing. The faces are more precisely modeled; the background is built with looser touches of paint. The museum’s research identifies this contrast as an important feature of the work.
Enlarge both areas in turn. Ask where an edge is clear and where it seems to dissolve. A painting does not need to describe every object with the same level of detail. Here, the change in brushwork helps distinguish the figures from their setting.
Follow the bright colors
Look at the red hat, the flowers in the child’s headdress, and the colored yarn in the basket. Follow these accents across the picture. Which draws your eye most strongly?
Make a small sketch using only shapes for those bright areas. Leave the faces out at first. Does the arrangement still suggest where your attention should move? Return to the whole painting and compare your simplified version. This exercise gives you a way to study a portrait through color and placement as well as through likeness.
Explore the paintings.
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