Detail of Marguerite-Therese Berard by Renoir in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2010

Artist: Auguste Renoir (French, Limoges 1841–1919 Cagnes-sur-Mer)

Title: Marguerite-Thérèse (Margot) Berard (1874–1956)

Date: 1879

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 16 1/8 x 12 3/4 in. (41 x 32.4 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Bequest of Stephen C. Clark, 1960

Accession Number: 61.101.15


Gallery Label:

Renoir depicted the five-year-old daughter of his devoted patron Paul Berard, a French diplomat and banker whom he met in the winter of 1878. The artist often spent his summers at the Berards' country home in Wargemont, near Dieppe, on the Normandy coast, where he painted decorative pictures for the house and a veritable family album of portraits, which range from formal commissions to more intimate works that reflect a genuine fondness for the four Berard children. According to Margot's nephew, Renoir painted this spirited portrait of her to "cheer her up" after a disagreeable lesson with her German tutor that had brought her to tears.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/europe...