Coco

Artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir French, 1841 - 1919

Date1905

Place of OriginParis, France

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsStretcher: 10 7/8 × 14 3/16 in. (27.6 × 36 cm)
Frame Dimensions: 18 1/2 × 21 3/4 × 2 in. (47 × 55.2 × 5.1 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineThe Hyde Collection Trust, 1952

Object number1971.38

On View

On view

Collections

European Paintings & Sculpture

SignedSigned upper right: "Renoir"

MarkingsOn verso: Upper left, remnants of a blue paper label from storage company. Top center, on white label, in fountain pen, "Renoir/"Coco" with measurements (?) below this. Upper right, in blue pencil, "9281A" On canvas, round paper label, stamped, "Douane Centrale Paris" Vertical center stretcher bar, left to right: in black pencil "DR 8905" "6245". In blue pencil, "1128". On a paper label, "1128" Ink inscription on wood "Renoir" (the rest is illegible).

DescriptionRenoir frequently painted members of his family from life, including his children. Coco (Claude) was his third and last son, born in 1901; here he is approximately four years old. His older brother Jean, later the famed filmmaker, had been a preferred model for his father, partly due to his long hair, but at only seven was sent away to school where short hair was mandated. It is even suggested he was sent away early, in order to allow Renoir to turn to golden-haired Coco as model. Seven-year-old Jean, teased about his lengthy hair by fellow children, was relieved to have his long tresses cut, and Coco became a repeated subject for Renoir’s art.

Coco is writing or more likely drawing while resting both arms on a flat surface. Jean Renoir later reported that his father, in order to keep him occupied while he was painting, gave him paper and a pencil. Multiple portraits by Renoir of both Jean and Coco exist in a similar posture, including ones done after both had short hair. Perhaps surprising to our twenty-first century eyes, here and in a number of his other portraits, Coco wears a ribbon in his hair, as had his brother before him.

We see here Impressionism’s interest in quick, loose brushstrokes and lighting effects, especially notable in Coco’s shiny hair. Like Monet and other Impressionists, Renoir tends to flatten space through the repetition of color and homogeneous brushstrokes.

Text by Penny Howell Jolly, Professor Emerita of Art History, Skidmore College, July 2026Exhibition History"Exposition Auguste Renoir au Japon, 1993", Kasama Nichido Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan, July 24-Sept. 15; Musée d'Art de la ville de Kyoto: Kyoto, Japan, Oct. 2-31; Musée Nichido de Kasama, Kasama, Japan, November 3-30, 1993.

"Summer Exhibition: Modern French Masters", Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Los Angeles, CA, July 15- Sept. 15, (no year listed).

ProvenanceParis, France or New York, NY, Durand-Ruel Gallery
before 1948, New York, NY, Lilenfeld Galleries
1948, Glens Falls, NY, Mrs. Charlotte P. Hyde
1952, Glens Falls, NY, Hyde Collection Trust