Madame Monet and Her Son

Auguste Renoir

National Gallery of Art

We look slightly down onto a woman and a young boy, both with pale skin, sitting together on a grassy lawn with a chicken standing nearby in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes throughout. The woman sits with her body angled to our left, her legs stretched out in front of her. She turns her head to face us as she leans forward to rest her chin on one hand, with that elbow propped on her lap. She looks off to our left with dark eyes, and her coral-pink lips are parted. Her chestnut-brown hair is pulled up under a white bonnet, which is topped with a pink flower and a touch of black. A black ribbon tied around her neck hangs down her back. She wears a long-sleeved, full-skirted white dress, and swipes of yellow, blue, and brown could be shoes peeking out from the bottom hem. The unfolded fan she holds in her far hand is cream white along the center has rose pink to one side and indigo blue to the other. The boy leans against her torso, his legs coming toward us, and he looks out at us with dark eyes. His cheeks are flushed and his pink lips are closed. He has short blond hair with bangs under a short-brimmed, straw-yellow hat. His suit is baby blue with navy-blue swipes across the shoulders and a white streak at his neck, perhaps a neckerchief. There are dark bands at the cuffs and around his waist. The blue pants are rolled back over bare knees, and he wears gray socks and red and white shoes. A spindly tree trunk grows behind the woman’s back, and the grassy lawn nearly fills the painting. A bed of flowers with dark pink blossoms runs along the curving line of grass in the upper left corner. A chicken stands and looks at the pair, to our right. The bird has a vibrant red comb, buttercup-yellow, white, and dark brown feathers. Its feet are covered with white feathers.