Gabrielle con cappello

The woman in the hat is Gabrielle Renard, a cousin of Renoir's wife who came into the household in 1894 to help raise the children, among them the future film director Jean Renoir. She stayed about 15 years and became the painter's favourite model, posing more often than anyone else in his late work. By 1909, when this was made, Renoir was in his late sixties and living in the south of France, his hands so twisted by rheumatoid arthritis that brushes had to be wedged between his fingers. None of that strain shows here. He gives Gabrielle warm, full skin and an unhurried gaze under the hat, painting her as he had for years, someone entirely at ease in the room with him.