Mädchen in Schwarz

Renoir painted this around 1881, and by then he was quietly moving away from pure Impressionism, giving his figures firmer edges than the shimmering crowds of a few years before. Two young women sit close in dark dresses, one looking out at us while the other leans in as if murmuring something private. The black is the surprise. Renoir usually chased sunlight and colour, yet here he lets sober city clothing anchor the picture, warmed only by the faces and hands. It came to Moscow through the Russian collector Sergei Shchukin, who bought French modern art in bulk before the First World War, and it has hung in the Pushkin Museum since 1948. The tilt of the two heads carries the whole mood of the scene.