Shown from about the waist up, a woman with pale, peachy skin and dark hair holds a blond, light-skinned child on her lap at a table as they play with several small toys in this horizontal painting. The portrait was painted with blended brushstrokes, giving the work a soft look. We look slightly down onto the pair, who are close to us as they nearly fill the composition. The woman sits at the far corner of the wooden table. Her black hair is pulled up and bangs frame her round face. She has rosy cheeks, a straight nose, and she smiles as she gazes down at the toy rooster she holds in her right hand, to our left. She wears a rose-pink, high necked garment with loose, long sleeves. Her other hand wraps around the torso of the child on her lap. The child faces our left in profile. Shaggy, strawberry-blond hair falls across his high forehead and down around the collar of his white shirt. He has a short, snub nose, flushed cheeks, and his coral-red lips are parted. He looks toward the toy rooster as he stands a doll up on the table with one hand. The doll has a white shirt, topaz-blue sash around the waist, and a red skirt, and three white sheep stand and lie on the table nearby. To our right, the wall behind the pair is patterned with loosely painted peachy-pink and white forms, presumably flowers, against a forest-green background. Vertical bands of smoke-gray to our left suggest drapes hanging from above. The artist signed the work in small red letters at the upper right corner: “Renoir.”

Child with Toys - Gabrielle and the Artist's Son, Jean

Auguste Renoir

Shown from about the waist up, a woman with pale, peachy skin and dark hair holds a blond, light-skinned child on her lap at a table as they play with several small toys in this horizontal painting. The portrait was painted with blended brushstrokes, giving the work a soft look. We look slightly down onto the pair, who are close to us as they nearly fill the composition. The woman sits at the far corner of the wooden table. Her black hair is pulled up and bangs frame her round face. She has rosy cheeks, a straight nose, and she smiles as she gazes down at the toy rooster she holds in her right hand, to our left. She wears a rose-pink, high necked garment with loose, long sleeves. Her other hand wraps around the torso of the child on her lap. The child faces our left in profile. Shaggy, strawberry-blond hair falls across his high forehead and down around the collar of his white shirt. He has a short, snub nose, flushed cheeks, and his coral-red lips are parted. He looks toward the toy rooster as he stands a doll up on the table with one hand. The doll has a white shirt, topaz-blue sash around the waist, and a red skirt, and three white sheep stand and lie on the table nearby. To our right, the wall behind the pair is patterned with loosely painted peachy-pink and white forms, presumably flowers, against a forest-green background. Vertical bands of smoke-gray to our left suggest drapes hanging from above. The artist signed the work in small red letters at the upper right corner: “Renoir.”

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Auguste Renoir
Date
1895-1896
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 54.3 x 65.4 cm (21 3/8 x 25 3/4 in.) framed: 65.7 x 76.7 x 3.5 cm (25 7/8 x 30 3/16 x 1 3/8 in.)
Department
CF
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Art Genome Taxonomy

11 tags

Subject Matter

  • Family Both · 95%

    The title identifies Gabrielle and the artist’s son, Jean, while the image shows an adult woman holding a child closely on her lap.

  • Childhood Both · 99%

    The catalog identifies the child as Jean, and the image clearly depicts a young child engaged in play.

  • Portrait Both · 98%

    The catalog’s description calls the work a portrait, and the image presents two identifiable human subjects as the central focus.

  • Interiors Visual · 97%

    The figures are shown indoors beside a wooden table, with drapery and a patterned wall behind them.

  • Related to Toys Both · 99%

    A toy rooster, a doll, and several small sheep are visibly shown on or near the table, and the catalog specifically identifies them as playthings.

Visual Qualities

  • Pastel Colors Visual · 88%

    The palette is dominated by softly modulated rose, peach, cream, ocher, and muted green tones.

  • Dense Composition Visual · 88%

    The closely cropped figures occupy most of the composition, with the tabletop toys forming a compact foreground cluster.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 100%

    The catalog identifies the medium as oil on canvas.

  • Painting Both · 98%

    The catalog classifies the work as a painting, and the image visibly presents a painted surface with blended, painterly brushwork.

  • Large Brushstrokes/Loose Brushwork Both · 90%

    The catalog describes blended brushstrokes, and the image shows loose, softened handling across the figures, clothing, hair, and background.

Time Periods

  • 19th Century Art Metadata · 100%

    The catalog dates the work to 1895–1896, placing it within the nineteenth century.

Source & rights

Auguste Renoir. Child with Toys - Gabrielle and the Artist's Son, Jean. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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