Portrait De Femme c. 1912

This is Renoir's "Portrait De Femme", and what strikes me about it is the way he's just *feeling* the form into existence with these short, feathery strokes. It’s like he's building up the image atom by atom. Look at how he uses color – not to describe, but to suggest warmth and light. The blues and pinks in the woman’s dress aren’t really about the color of the fabric, but more about the way light hits it, the shadows it casts. Then check out her face, how the peachiness in her cheek is built up from these tiny dabs of paint. It’s like Renoir's not painting a portrait, but conjuring up an impression of a woman, almost like she could dissolve back into the canvas at any moment. I am thinking of the work of Manet, and the way that he built up images with brushstrokes and the physicality of the medium. In the end it’s just paint, but it's paint with so much sensitivity.