Jean en chasseur

In 1910 Renoir was almost 70 and his hands were badly deformed by rheumatoid arthritis. He painted with the brush wedged between swollen fingers, sometimes strapped to his wrist. The boy standing here in hunting dress, a rifle loose in one hand, is his second son, Jean. Renoir liked to let his children's hair grow long and to dress them in soft, bright things, which is why this young hunter looks so gently turned out. Jean would grow up to make films, among them La Grande Illusion and The Rules of the Game, still counted among the finest ever shot. The small white-and-brown dog at his feet belonged to the household.