Writing Lesson (La Leçon d'écriture)

Writing Lesson, dated 1905 and held at the Barnes Foundation, belongs to Renoir's late period when he was living primarily at his property Les Collettes in Cagnes-sur-Mer in the south of France. Despite increasing debilitating arthritis that eventually required him to paint with brushes strapped to his wrists, Renoir continued to produce intimate domestic scenes of children and women with undiminished warmth. The subject of a child learning to write connects to his enduring interest in the rhythms of everyday bourgeois life, a world of peaceful domestic occupation he consistently celebrated against the background of Modernist experimentation happening in Paris.

The loose, comma-like strokes that distinguish his late style are visible in the rendering of the children's clothing and the background setting. Renoir builds warm flesh tones through layered, blended paint, while maintaining a high-key palette that bathes the intimate scene in soft, indoor light.