Caroline Rémy ("Séverine")

Auguste Renoir

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the waist up in front a yellow background sits a pale-skinned woman wearing a high-necked, long-sleeved blue dress in this vertical pastel. The woman leans slightly to our left as that elbow rests on the arm of a chair or other piece of furniture. She has large blue eyes under dark brows, a round face, and her pink lips are parted to reveal a row of white teeth. Brown tousled curls create bangs across her forehead, and her hair is pulled back under a black and white cap perched on the back of her head. A blue-black ribbon ties in a bow to the right under her chin. Coral-peach, yellow, and pale green flowers cascade from her left shoulder, to our right, down to the chest of her light blue, long-sleeved bodice. The cuff we see is shaded green, and she wears a bracelet and ring on that wrist and hand. Her other arm appears to reach slightly forward and presumably rest in her lap. The woman and the bright yellow background are created with blended strokes, giving the pastel a soft look. The artist signed the lower left corner in cobalt blue, “Renoir.”