Girl with a Hoop

Girl with a Hoop (1885) is one of Renoir's most carefully observed childhood portraits, its subject — a girl in a pinafore holding a hoop — evoking both the specific leisure culture of bourgeois Parisian childhood and the timeless imagery of girlhood play. By 1885 Renoir was in the middle of his so-called Dry Period or Ingres period, when he temporarily adopted harder contours and more precise drawing after a period of dissatisfaction with what he saw as the formlessness of his Impressionist style. The firm drawing of the girl's face and dress reflects this transition, though the background retains some of the looseness of his earlier manner.

The girl's face and costume show the firmer, more linear handling of Renoir's mid-1880s style — contours are more defined, transitions more deliberate than in his looser Impressionist work. The hoop held at the side provides a geometric accent against the soft treatment of clothing. The outdoor setting is suggested loosely, with foliage kept light and approximate.