Lise in a Straw Hat (Jeune fille au chapeau de paille)

Lise Tréhot was nineteen when she and Renoir began their relationship around 1865, and she modelled for him consistently until approximately 1872 — the period of his most intense pre-Impressionist development. This 1866 portrait with the straw hat belongs to the early phase of that collaboration, when Renoir was still consolidating his training under Charles Gleyre and absorbing the influence of Courbet's robust realism. The directness of the observation, the solid modelling through tonal contrast rather than broken colour, and the firm contours all reflect his academic foundations rather than the revolutionary Impressionist technique he would develop in the following decade. Lise is treated with the frank attention of genuine personal interest rather than professional distance, and the straw hat — casual, summery, rural — establishes an informal register distinct from Salon portraiture. The painting anticipates the larger-scale portraits she modelled for, including Woman of Algiers (1870) and the celebrated Diana (1867), works that show Renoir using Lise as the vehicle for his most ambitious Salon submissions while painting her smaller, more intimate images like this one for his own satisfaction. The Barnes Foundation's holding connects this early work to the mature canvases that surround it in that collection.

Renoir uses a more academic technique than his mature style — firmer contours, stronger tonal contrasts, and less fragmentary brushwork. The straw hat is rendered with careful attention to its texture and structure. The face shows Renoir already capable of luminous, warm skin tones that would become his signature.