Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Lise with a Parasol

Lise with a Parasol – the face in shade, the dress in sun

Lise with a Parasol is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1867. The original measures 184.0 x 115.0 cm, is recorded under inventory number G 144 and belongs to the collection of the Museum Folkwang in Essen. Our oil painting on canvas Lise with a Parasol is painted by hand, in eight sizes from 58 x 90 to 130 x 200 cm.

A black lace parasol above white muslin

A young woman stands at the edge of a wood in a long white muslin dress with a wide black sash and a black ribbon at the throat. She holds a black lace parasol that throws her face and shoulders into shade while the sun falls full on her skirt. It is exactly this division — a shaded upper half, a sunlit lower one — that is the point of the work; the signature is visible at the lower right.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. In this subject the difference is easy to see: the white dress is not one flat surface but a run of individual strokes of oil colour — cool in the shade, warm in the sun — laid side by side with a brush. The paint keeps the thickness of the load and the track of the bristles, which printed paper cannot imitate, so a hand-painted painting reads differently under changing light than a flat printed surface does.

In the room

The format is large and upright and the figure is close to life size, so the scene works as an opening in the wall rather than an ornament: it belongs in an entrance hall, on a staircase, or in a room with a high ceiling where you can step back a few paces. Because the parasol throws the face and shoulders into shade while the dress stays in the sun, the difference between the two halves of the scene is the thing to see, and it only shows from a distance. For a smaller wall 70 x 110 cm is enough, for an open space we suggest 90 x 150 cm, and on a tall wall 120 x 190 cm works. Between them stand 80 x 130 and 100 x 160 cm. Under 58 x 90 cm the figure loses its life size and the scene becomes a vignette.

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. Lise with a Parasol 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: young woman at the edge of a wood with a black lace parasol, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 58 x 90 cm to 130 x 200 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the parasol puts the face and shoulders in shade while the dress stays in sun – the difference between the two halves is the subject

See also:

• In the Summer
• The Swing (La Balançoire)
• The Umbrellas