The Artist's Family (La Famille de l'artiste)

Renoir painted his largest family portrait in 1896, in the garden of the house in Montmartre where they were then living. His wife Aline stands at the centre in a broad hat, their eldest boy Pierre at her arm. The little one steadied in front by Gabrielle, the family's nursemaid and one of Renoir's favourite models, is Jean, two or three years old here, who would grow up to make some of France's greatest films. Renoir had recently returned from Madrid, where the grand group portraits of Velázquez and Van Dyck were fresh in his mind, and you can feel that older grandeur in the way the figures stand life-size and full length. He never sold the picture. Dr. Barnes bought it from one of the sons in 1927.