Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Jean Drawing

Jean Drawing – Renoir’s son bent over a pad of paper

Jean Drawing is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1901. The original is in a private holding, and its measurement is not recorded in our documentation, so we do not give one here. We paint our version by hand in oils on canvas, in eight landscape sizes, from 40 x 30 to 150 x 120 cm, and on request in a size that is not on the list.

A child at work, not a child sitting for a portrait

The painting shows Renoir’s son Jean sitting at a table and drawing. He is leaning over a pad of paper and is completely absorbed in his own work. For a portrait of a child that is unusual: he does not look towards the painter and does not pose, but is busy with something of his own, so the scene is observation more than portrait. The posture – the lowered head and the hand on the paper – carries the whole account, and less of the face is visible than in an ordinary portrait.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. The scene rests on the bent posture and on the soft edge of a child’s face in shadow, that is, once again on a passage without a boundary. The screen divides such a passage and the shadow under the brow stiffens into an area, which makes the child look older than he is. A hand-painted canvas leaves the shadow open and the stroke visible, so the head stays round and soft even where it is darkest.

In the room

The subject is quiet and domestic, so it belongs where people stay a while: a living room, a child’s room, a study or a dining room. For an ordinary room we suggest 60 x 50 or 70 x 60 cm, where the figure is roughly the natural size of a child at a table. On a large wall 120 x 100 cm works. The smallest sizes, 40 x 30 and 50 x 40 cm, suit a shelf, a hallway or a desk, where the painting is seen from close to.

What you receive

We paint the canvas to order, by hand and for you alone, so every copy is made on its own; the canvas is usually painted and dried within three to four weeks. If you prefer, we will paint it in a size that is not on the list. Before despatch we send you a photograph of the finished canvas for your approval, and only then does the painting go out. Jean Drawing arrives stretched on a wooden frame and ready to hang, wrapped in protective film and in rigid packaging, with no further stretching or finishing needed.

• Subject: boy at a table, bent over a drawing, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 40 x 30 cm to 150 x 120 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the painting shows Jean, the painter’s son, who is not posing but drawing – so the scene is carried by posture, not by a gaze

See also:

• Woman at the Piano
• La Parisienne
• Ambroise Vollard Dressed as a Toreador