Geneviève Bernheim de Villers

Geneviève Bernheim de Villers was about 12 when she sat for this. Her father Gaston was one of the two brothers behind the Bernheim-Jeune gallery, Vuillard's dealers in Paris. She was used to painters. In 1910, when she was a small child, Renoir had painted her too. Vuillard puts her in a golden satin dress, her long hair loose, a pen in her hand and a notebook open on her knee. Around her is a collector's room, with a relief of a woman's head on the pale wall, a gilt-framed mirror and small figurines along the mantelpiece. He worked in distemper, a glue-based paint, and signed and dated it 1920. In 1951, on his 50th wedding anniversary, her father gave the picture to the national museums, and the Renoir went the same year.