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| Jeanne Samary - Auguste Renoir Source |
A little bit of history
Date: 1877
Located in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow,
Russia.
The woman portrayed in the picture is Jeanne
Samary, a very famous actress who worked in the Comédie Française. She posed
for many paintings and was admired for her beauty. In this painting she is in
her 20’s. When hearing about her death Renoir said: “Her skin! It illuminated
everything around it.”
A little
bit of technique
The
painting has a strong impressionist aesthetic. You can see that color is very
important to transmit how luminous her face was. Renoir’s brush strokes are
also swift and not very defined. It is considered one of Renoir’s masterpieces
and it’s from the period where he created his best impressionist works.
A little
bit of enthusiasm
Seriously, I could look at this painting
forever. We have the impression that Jeanne Samary must have been that beautiful. By the way, if you see
her portraits done by other artists you won’t have this impression.
The little flowers on her dress and her simple
bracelet make her so stylish without looking too dated, (something that unfortunately happens a lot in portraits).
I know I say this a lot (specially about dead famous people), but I wish I could have been her friend. Plus, I
can’t get by the fact that she was in the Comédie Française. Ever since I saw “The shop around the corner” I think working there must have been the most
glamourous thing ever (maybe I’ll discover, like Clara, that that’s not true).
Well, if I can’t be Jeanne’s bestie, I’ll just
admire Renoir’s amazing portrait and try to copy her delicate demeanor.
How do you feel about this painting? Do you like any other paintings by Renoir?
