Self-Portrait 1910

Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted this self-portrait, in 1910, with oil on canvas. The strokes are soft and blended, a bit like he's building up the image out of a hazy memory. It’s the kind of brushwork that lets you feel the painting being made, one gentle layer at a time. I love how the red background bleeds into the face, this warmth that suggests vitality but also vulnerability. Notice the way the light hits his beard, how it’s almost a flurry of white against the darker tones. It feels like he's capturing not just a likeness, but a sense of himself as a painter, a craftsman, an aging man. It reminds me a bit of late Titian, that same attention to the surface, the way the paint itself seems to breathe. Renoir's showing us that art is always a conversation, a back-and-forth between the artist, the materials, and of course, all of us looking on.