Girls with Hats (Jeunes filles aux chapeaux)

Girls with Hats belongs to the large group of Renoir figure studies at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, and reflects his sustained engagement with young women as subjects throughout the 1880s–1910s. The motif of decorative hats allowed him to explore colour and texture—ribbons, flowers, feathers, fabric—alongside the faces and hair he treated with particular sensual attention. These paintings were not society portraits but informal character studies, closer to Degas's interest in women at leisure than to formal portraiture. The Barnes Foundation holds more than 180 Renoir works, making it the pre-eminent collection for understanding his range and development.

The composition places the hatted figures against a loosely indicated background, with Renoir's characteristic feathery brushwork animating the hat decorations and hair. Cool hat colours are juxtaposed against warm flesh tones, creating the vibrant chromatic play that defines his figure painting.