The Painter's Niece Seated

Geneviève Géry was about 12 when her uncle painted her in 1931. She sits with one hand resting on the other wrist and looks away from us, as if lost in a daydream. The museum sees Corot in that mood, the 19th-century French painter whose quiet, absorbed young women Derain admired a great deal. Look at her two arms. The nearer one is laid in with long, smooth strokes, while the other arm and her face are built from small, sharp touches. Her pale dress is flecked with bright light. A large round hat hangs on her back, and the same hat turns up in a second, much larger portrait of her, also at the Orangerie. Behind her the background is a dark mass of greens and reddish browns, and only her brown hair eases the passage from her face into it.