Portrait de Pierre-Henri Renoir

The sitter is the painter's elder brother. Henri Renoir, born in 1832, made his living as an engraver in Paris, cutting monograms and coats of arms into metal, and when Auguste was 17 and needed money it was Henri who gave him work colouring heraldic designs and painting fans. Both brothers came up through the decorative trades. Auguste painted him in 1870, with a companion portrait of Henri's wife Blanche-Marie, in a year that had started well: two of his pictures were accepted for the Salon that spring, the first time things looked like moving. In July France declared war on Prussia. Renoir was called up into a cavalry regiment and sent to the southwest, where he spent the war schooling horses while Paris was besieged and his brother's engraving trade stopped. The pair of portraits stayed in private hands and still are.