GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This painting is likely one of the last images of Lise Tréhot that Pierre-Auguste Renoir made before the couple parted ways in 1872 or 1873. It is also one of his most portrait-like depictions of her. Her large gold earrings and white lace shawl may indicate that she is wearing a sort of costume and playing a role, as she usually did when posing for Renoir, but the other elements of her outfit—a black silk dress with white cuffs and a red scarf at the neck—are conventional contemporary dress. Her forthright gaze, which meets the scrutiny of the artist with focus and intensity, suggests the intimacy of their personal relationship and their long experience of collaboration as artist and model.
Excerpt from
Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2015.
NOTES
c. 1872
Geography France because Renoir and Lise both traveled in France during this time period.
Richard Brettell, Impressionist Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 51.
Emery Reves and Douglas Cooper each considered this superb - and sentimental - portrait of Lise Tréhot to be the last of many paintings that Renoir made of his favorite model. Cooper even hints that the painting may have been made as a wedding present for Tréhot, who married Georges Brière de l'Isle in Paris on 24 April 1872. The white scarf she wears over her head lends the representation an air of modesty, and her gesture focuses our attention on her face, with its large, dark eyes, rather than on her body. This character of modesty lends credence to Cooper's idea that the picture was a wedding gift.
Renoir used Tréhot as a model for a full-length portrait painted in 1871-1872 (Guggenheim Museum, New York). Called "Girl Feeding a Bird (Lise)," this work was made as part of an elaborate pictorial dialogue with Manet and Courbet. In it, Tréhot wears the same dress and earrings as she does in the Reves portrait, which suggests that the two works were painted at the same time, and that Renoir retained the more ambitious picture for exhibition and sale and gave the smaller, more intimate picture to his favorite model, who kept it throughout her life.
All evidence suggests that Tréhot was closely connected to Renoir, but that she struggled after her marriage to assure her bourgeois respectability by cutting off all connections with the painter. This, the last of Renoir's pictorial "homages" to Tréhot, is a work of utter frankness and simplicity. How they must have stared into each other's eyes as Renoir painted her this last time. His brush lingered over her shawl, exploring its patterns and folds, but his most confident strokes define her features. Her lips, gently closed, are highlighted with tiny touches of white paint that make them look moist. The dimple beneath her mouth appears almost to tremble, and her eyes seem filled with tears. If ever there was a subtler and more satisfying representation of regret and loss, it is difficult to bring to mind. One almost wishes that Renoir himself had kept this painting.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin: France (nation): TGN: 1000070
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Lise Tréhot
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
13315962: UMO The Many Face of Renoir's Lise Trehot
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York~Read a biography of Pierre-Auguste Renoir from the Met.
- Guggenheim, New York~The dress Lise wears in this painting from the Guggenheim closely resemble her clothing in the portrait at the Dallas Museum of Art.
- The National Gallery, London~Check out this painting of Lise depicted as a nymph by Renoir.
- The Barnes Collection, Philadelphia~View another portrait of Lise Tréhot c. 1866.
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General Description
This painting is likely one of the last images of Lise Tréhot that Pierre-Auguste Renoir made before the couple parted ways in 1872 or 1873. It is also one of his most portrait-like depictions of her. Her large gold earrings and white lace shawl may indicate that she is wearing a sort of costume and playing a role, as she usually did when posing for Renoir, but the other elements of her outfit—a black silk dress with white cuffs and a red scarf at the neck—are conventional contemporary dress. Her forthright gaze, which meets the scrutiny of the artist with focus and intensity, suggests the intimacy of their personal relationship and their long experience of collaboration as artist and model.
Excerpt from
Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2015.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York~Read a biography of Pierre-Auguste Renoir from the Met.
- Guggenheim, New York~The dress Lise wears in this painting from the Guggenheim closely resemble her clothing in the portrait at the Dallas Museum of Art.
- The National Gallery, London~Check out this painting of Lise depicted as a nymph by Renoir.
- The Barnes Collection, Philadelphia~View another portrait of Lise Tréhot c. 1866.
Notes
c. 1872
Geography France because Renoir and Lise both traveled in France during this time period.
Richard Brettell, Impressionist Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 51.
Emery Reves and Douglas Cooper each considered this superb - and sentimental - portrait of Lise Tréhot to be the last of many paintings that Renoir made of his favorite model. Cooper even hints that the painting may have been made as a wedding present for Tréhot, who married Georges Brière de l'Isle in Paris on 24 April 1872. The white scarf she wears over her head lends the representation an air of modesty, and her gesture focuses our attention on her face, with its large, dark eyes, rather than on her body. This character of modesty lends credence to Cooper's idea that the picture was a wedding gift.
Renoir used Tréhot as a model for a full-length portrait painted in 1871-1872 (Guggenheim Museum, New York). Called "Girl Feeding a Bird (Lise)," this work was made as part of an elaborate pictorial dialogue with Manet and Courbet. In it, Tréhot wears the same dress and earrings as she does in the Reves portrait, which suggests that the two works were painted at the same time, and that Renoir retained the more ambitious picture for exhibition and sale and gave the smaller, more intimate picture to his favorite model, who kept it throughout her life.
All evidence suggests that Tréhot was closely connected to Renoir, but that she struggled after her marriage to assure her bourgeois respectability by cutting off all connections with the painter. This, the last of Renoir's pictorial "homages" to Tréhot, is a work of utter frankness and simplicity. How they must have stared into each other's eyes as Renoir painted her this last time. His brush lingered over her shawl, exploring its patterns and folds, but his most confident strokes define her features. Her lips, gently closed, are highlighted with tiny touches of white paint that make them look moist. The dimple beneath her mouth appears almost to tremble, and her eyes seem filled with tears. If ever there was a subtler and more satisfying representation of regret and loss, it is difficult to bring to mind. One almost wishes that Renoir himself had kept this painting.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin: France (nation): TGN: 1000070
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Lise Tréhot
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
13315962: UMO The Many Face of Renoir's Lise Trehot
VIDEO ASSETS
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