Niña con gorguera roja

By 1896 Renoir had left behind the flickering outdoor scenes that made his name and settled into something warmer and more old-fashioned, close-up portraits, often of children, painted with a softness he admired in the old masters. This girl wears a red ruff, a piece of historical costume rather than everyday dress, the kind of prop that let him echo the courtly portraits of earlier centuries. He was in his mid-fifties now and increasingly drawn to the human figure over landscape. The ruff gave him what he wanted most in these years, an excuse to build a face out of warm reds and pinks and let the fabric glow around it.