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A pale-skinned young girl with blond hair, wearing a blue dress, stands in a garden in this vertical painting. The girl and background are painted with blended strokes, giving the scene and especially the girl a soft look. She faces our right and stands in the middle of the composition. Her shoulder-length cloud of hair is topped with a red bow, and long bangs frame her round face. Under faint brows, her sapphire-blue eyes look to our right. She has a petite nose, and her coral-pink mouth turns up in a slight smile. Her cobalt-blue dress is trimmed with wide, blue-white lace on the neckline, across the bottom hem, and down the front to either side of a row of white buttons. The white edges her petticoats come down to just below her knees, peeking out from under the flaring skirt. She wears white socks over blue ankle boots, which also have a row of white buttons down the side we can see. Her near hand is raised with her index finger hooked in the handle of a green watering can, and she holds two daisies by her side in her other hand. She stands on a path flecked with ivory white, pale purples, greens, and pink that curves up and to her left. A bush with emerald and pine-green leaves dotted with pink blooms fills the lower left corner. Behind her, green grass runs back to meet a profusion of pink, purple, and poppy-red plants and flowers that run along the top edge of the composition. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “Renoir. 76.”
Read the visual description

A pale-skinned young girl with blond hair, wearing a blue dress, stands in a garden in this vertical painting. The girl and background are painted with blended strokes, giving the scene and especially the girl a soft look. She faces our right and stands in the middle of the composition. Her shoulder-length cloud of hair is topped with a red bow, and long bangs frame her round face. Under faint brows, her sapphire-blue eyes look to our right. She has a petite nose, and her coral-pink mouth turns up in a slight smile. Her cobalt-blue dress is trimmed with wide, blue-white lace on the neckline, across the bottom hem, and down the front to either side of a row of white buttons. The white edges her petticoats come down to just below her knees, peeking out from under the flaring skirt. She wears white socks over blue ankle boots, which also have a row of white buttons down the side we can see. Her near hand is raised with her index finger hooked in the handle of a green watering can, and she holds two daisies by her side in her other hand. She stands on a path flecked with ivory white, pale purples, greens, and pink that curves up and to her left. A bush with emerald and pine-green leaves dotted with pink blooms fills the lower left corner. Behind her, green grass runs back to meet a profusion of pink, purple, and poppy-red plants and flowers that run along the top edge of the composition. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “Renoir. 76.”

National Gallery of Art · Painting

A Girl with a Watering Can

Auguste Renoir

Date
1876
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 100 x 73 cm (39 3/8 x 28 3/4 in.) framed: 125.7 x 97.5 x 6.9 cm (49 1/2 x 38 3/8 x 2 11/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1963.10.206
Credit line
Chester Dale Collection
Time span
1876 to 1900
Department
CF
Original NGA record Wikidata Print information

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • French
  • girl
  • portrait
  • Impressionist
  • Selliere, Mlle.
Provenance

Possibly commissioned c. 1876 for the Sellière Collection, Paris; by inheritance to Comte Batthiany, by 1898; Alexandre Rosenberg, Paris. Paul Bérard [1830-1905], Paris.[1] Alexandre Berthier [1883-1918], 4th prince de Wagram; sold probably by his heirs through (Canadeesche Hypothek Bank) through (Étienne Bignou, Paris) to (Alex Reid & Lefèvre, London); on joint account with (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York and Paris) and (Marcel Kapferer); sold September 1931 through (Galerie Étienne Bignou, Paris) to Chester Dale [1882-1962], New York; [2] bequest 1963 to NGA. [1] According to an annotated photograph in the albums of the Bignou Gallery now at the documentation center of the Musée d'Orsay (copy NGA curatorial files). Bérard was a banker and patron of Renoir. This painting is not included in his estate sale held at Galerie Georges Petit in 1905.His name appears on document in NGA Gallery Archives, Chester and Maud Dale papers, Artist & Dealer FIles (Renoir file), Box 3, folder 1 (copy in NGA curatoria files). [2] Reid & Lefèvre Paintings Sold, sheet no. 204, #14/29 B1405 gives acquisition source and partial share information (Lefèvre archives, Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain, London, TGA 2002/11, Box 283). M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Painting Stock book no. 5, London 1928-1939; Stock book no. 8, New York, no. A620; Inventory card, box 115, item 005 (copies in NGA curatorial files).

Inscription

lower right: Renoir. 76.

NGA object ID 46681. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.