Young Woman Sewing

1879

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919)

The model for this elegant painting of a French bourgeois woman sewing may be Aline Charigot, whom Pierre-Auguste Renoir would go on to marry. The artist treated his domestic subject—a middle-class woman embroidering a textile—with vibrant color, light-filled atmosphere, and freely handled paint. Cobalt blue dominates the composition with striking contrasts of red and spare touches of yellow, relying on the optical effect produced by the close proximity of primary colors to enliven the composition and increase the sense of direct observation and spontaneity.

Status: On View, Gallery 201
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Title: Young Woman Sewing
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1879
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed upper left: Renoir 79
Dimensions: 61.4 × 50.5 cm (24 3/16 × 19 7/8 in.); Framed: 84.2 × 75 × 10.5 cm (33 1/8 × 29 1/2 × 4 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 1933.452
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/14647/manifest.json

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Jacques-Émile Blanche, “La technique de Renoir,” L’amour de l’art 2, 2 (Feb. 1921), opp. p. 33 (ill.).
Paul Rosenberg, Paris, Exposition d’oeuvres de grands maîtres du dix-neuvième siècle, exh. cat. (Frazier-Soye, 1922), p. 23, cat. 74.
Julius Meier-Graefe, Renoir (Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1929), pp. 99, n. 1; 122, no. 108 (ill.).
“French Masterpieces That One Day Will Belong to Art Institute,” Chicago Daily News, June 1931, p. 14 (ill.).
Reginald Howard Wilenski, French Painting (Hale, Cushman & Flint, 1931), p. 262.
Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Mrs. L. L. Coburn Collection: Modern Paintings and Watercolors, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), pp. 6; 22–23, no. 32.
Daniel Catton Rich, “The Bequest of Mrs. L. L. Coburn,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 26, 6 (Nov. 1932), p. 68.
Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of “A Century of Progress”: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture; Lent from American Collections, ed. Daniel Catton Rich, 3rd ed., exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1933), p. 49, cat. 344.
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Rearrangement of the Paintings Galleries,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 27, 7 (Dec. 1933), p. 115.
Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of “A Century of Progress”: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, 1934, ed. Daniel Catton Rich, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1934), pp. 39–40, cat. 235.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections (Art Institute of Chicago, 1935), p. 28.
Hans Tietz, ed., Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika (Phaidon, 1935), pp. 295 (ill.), p. 345.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Renoir: A Special Exhibition of His Paintings, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Bradford, 1937), no. 25 (ill.).
Harry B. Wehle, “The Painting of Renoir,” in Metropolitan Museum of Art, Renoir: A Special Exhibition of His Paintings, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Bradford, 1937), p. 7.
Josephine L. Allen, “Paintings by Renoir,” Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 32, 5 (May 1937), p. 112.
Columbus (Ohio) Gallery of Fine Arts, “Six Paintings by Renoir,” Monthly Bulletin 9, 1 (Oct. 1938), front cover (ill.); no. 1.
Lionello Venturi, Les archives de l’impressionnisme: Lettres de Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, et autres; Mémoires de Paul Durand-Ruel; Documents, vol. 1 (Durand-Ruel, 1939), p. 152.
Reginald Howard Wilenski, Modern French Painters (Reynal & Hitchcok, [1940]), pp. 62, 337.
Harry B. Wehle, “The Painting of Renoir,” in Duveen Galleries, New York, Renoir: Centennial Loan Exhibition, 1841–1941; For the Benefit of the Free French Relief Committee, exh. cat. (Vilmorin/Bradford, 1941), p. 18.
Paul Rosenberg, New York, Great French Masters of the Nineteenth Century: Corot to Van Gogh, exh. cat. (Rosenberg, 1942), pp. 24–25, no. 8 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1945), p. 36.
Isabel Bishop, “Concerning Edges,” Magazine of Art 38, 5 (May 1945), p. 172 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “Bulletin Board,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 40, 1 (Jan. 1946), p. 6.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Bulletin Board,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 40, 4, pt. 2 (Apr.–May 1946), p. 52.
“What the Piece Goods Buyer Can Learn from the Apparel Business,” American Fabrics 4 (Fall 1947), p. 88 (ill.).
Art Gallery of Toronto, Fifty Paintings by Old Masters, exh. cat. (Art Gallery of Toronto, 1950), cat. 37.
Dorothy Bridaham, Renoir in the Art Institute of Chicago (Conzett & Huber, 1954), pl. 2.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 395.
Frederick A. Sweet, “Great Chicago Collectors,” Apollo 84, 55 (Sept. 1966), p. 203.
François Daulte, Renoir: A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the American Association of Museums in Commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Renoir’s Death, exh. cat. (Wildenstein, 1969), cat. 28 (ill.).
François Daulte, Auguste Renoir: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, vol. 1, Figures, 1860–1890 (Durand-Ruel, 1971), pp. 230–31, cat. 299 (ill.).
Elda Fezzi, L’opera completa di Renoir: Nel periodo impressionista, 1869–1883, Classici dell’arte 59 (Rizzoli, 1972), pp. 103, cat. 339; 104, cat. 339 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Renoir, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1973), pp. 78–79, cat. 25 (ill.).
National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, and Kyoto National Museum, Masterpieces of World Art from American Museums: From Ancient Egyptian to Contemporary Art, exh. cat. (National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 1976), no. 45 (ill.).
Patricia Erens, Masterpieces: Famous Chicagoans and Their Paintings (Chicago Review, 1979), n. pag. (ill.).
J. Patrice Marandel, The Art Institute of Chicago: Favorite Impressionist Paintings (Cross River, 1979), pp. 72–73 (ill.).
Joel Isaacson, The Crisis of Impressionism, 1878–1882, exh. cat. (University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1980), pp. 30; 178–79, cat. 47 (ill.).
Diane Kelder, The Great Book of French Impressionism (Abbeville, 1980), pp. 266 (ill.), 438.
Diane Kelder, The Great Book of French Impressionism, Tiny Folios (Abbeville, 1980), p. 148, pl. 8.
Musée Toulouse-Lautrec and Art Institute of Chicago, Trésors impressionnistes du Musée de Chicago, exh. cat. (Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, 1980), pp. 39, no. 20 (ill.); 68.
Nicholas Wadley, ed., Renoir: A Retrospective (Hugh Lauter Levin/Macmillan, 1987), p. 66, pl. 18.
Anne Distel, “Charles Deudon (1832–1914) collectionneur,” Revue de l’art 86 (1989), p. 64, no. 10 (ill.).
Sophie Monneret, Renoir, Profils de l’art (Chêne, 1989), p. 152, cat. 23 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Treasures of 19th- and 20th-Century Painting: The Art Institute of Chicago, with an introduction by James N. Wood (Art Institute of Chicago/Abbeville, 1993), p. 77 (ill.).
Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy, Correspondance de Renoir et Durand-Ruel, 1881–1906, vol. 1 (Bibliothèque des Arts, 1995), p. 275, n. 51.
Douglas W. Druick, Renoir, Artists in Focus (Art Institute of Chicago/Abrams, 1997), pp. 45–46; 88, pl. 7; 110.
Gilles Néret, Renoir: Painter of Happiness, 1841–1919, trans. Josephine Bacon (Taschen, 2001), pp. 124–25 (ill.).
John Collins, “Christine Lerolle Embroidering: Between Genre Painting and Portraiture,” in Ann Dumas and John Collins, Renoir’s Women, exh. cat. (Columbus Museum of Art/Merrell, 2005), pp. 102, 106.
Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, with the collaboration of Camille Frémontier-Murphy, Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. 1, 1858–1881 (Bernheim-Jeune, 2007), pp. 416–17, cat. 393 (ill.).
Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, with the assistance of Dorota Chudzicka and Jill Shaw, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Kimbell Art Museum, 2008), pp. 15 (ill.); 76, cat. 29 (ill.). Simultaneously published as Gloria Groom and Douglas Druick, with the assistance of Dorota Chudzicka and Jill Shaw, The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 15 (ill.); 76, cat. 29 (ill.).
Anne Distel, Renoir (Citadelles & Mazenod, 2009), pp. 154–55, ill. 138.
Toru Arayashiki et al., Renoir: Tradition and Innovation, trans. Stanley N. Anderson, Martha J. McClintock, and Cheryl A. Silverman, exh. cat. (National Museum of Art, Osaka/National Art Center, Tokyo/Yomiuri Shimbun, 2010), pp. 25 (ill.); 146–47, cat. 54 (ill.); 148–49 (detail); 249, cat. 54 (ill.).
“Cat. 7: Young Woman Sewing, 1879,” in Renoir Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, ed. Gloria Groom and Jill Shaw (Art Institute of Chicago, 2014), https://publications.artic.edu/renoir/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/138973.
Eliza E. Rathbone, ed., Renoir and Friends: Luncheon of the Boating Party, exh. cat. (The Phillips Collection/ D Giles Limited, 2017), p. 23, 25, cat. 6, 134.

Paris, Paul Rosenberg, Exposition d’oeuvres de grands maîtres du dix-neuvième siècle, May 3–June 3, 1922, cat. 74.
Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Mrs. L. L. Coburn Collection: Modern Paintings and Watercolors, Apr. 6–Oct. 9, 1932, cat. 32.
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, May 23–Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 344.
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture for 1934, June 1–Oct. 31, 1934, cat. 235.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Renoir: A Special Exhibition of His Paintings, May 18–Sept. 12, 1937, cat. 25 (ill.).
Columbus (Ohio) Gallery of Fine Arts, Six Paintings by Renoir, Oct. 6–Nov. 6, 1938, cat. 1 (ill.).
New York, Paul Rosenberg, Great French Masters of the Nineteenth Century: Corot to van Gogh, May 4–29, 1942, cat. 8 (ill.).
Art Gallery of Toronto, Fifty Paintings by Old Masters, Apr. 21–May 21, 1950, cat. 37.
New York, Wildenstein, Renoir: A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the American Association of Museums in Commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Renoir’s Death, Mar. 27–May 3, 1969, cat. 28 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Renoir, Feb. 3–Apr. 1, 1973, cat. 25 (ill.).
Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, Masterpieces of World Art from American Museums: From Ancient Egyptian to Contemporary Art, Sept. 11–Oct. 17, 1976, cat. 45 (ill.); Kyoto National Museum, Nov. 2–Dec. 5, 1976.
Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art, The Crisis of Impressionism, 1878–1882, Nov. 2, 1979–Jan. 6, 1980, cat. 47 (ill.).
Albi, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Trésors impressionnistes du Musée de Chicago, June 27–Aug. 31, 1980, cat. 20 (ill.).
Hartford, Conn., Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, June 27, 1997–May 6, 1998, no cat.
Tokyo, Seiji Togo Memorial Yasuda Kasai Museum of Art, Aug. 24, 2001–June 12, 2002, no cat.
Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Art Museum, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, June 29–Nov. 2, 2008, cat. 29 (ill.).
Tokyo, National Art Center, Renoir: Tradition and Innovation, Jan. 20–Apr. 5, 2010, cat. 54 (ill.); Osaka, National Museum of Art, Apr. 17–June 27, 2010.
Washington, D.C., The Phillips Collection, Renoir and Friends: Luncheon of the Boating Party, Oct. 7, 2017-January 7, 2018, cat. 6 (ill.).

Charles Deudon (died 1914), Paris and Nice [per Daulte 1971 and Distel 1989]. Paul Rosenberg and Co., Paris and New York, by Feb. 1921. [per Daulte 1971 and Distel 1989. Also Durand-Ruel Godfroy 1995 suggests that Deudon’s collection was sold by Deudon’s wife to Rosenberg]. Howard Young, New York [per Daulte 1971]. Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn (d. 1932), Chicago, by June 1931 [See “French Masterpieces That One Day Will Belong to Art Institute,” Chicago Daily News, June 1931, p. 14 (ill.), which illustrates Mrs. Coburn in her home with the Art Institute’s painting hanging on the wall behind her]; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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