Girl with a sunshade

Girl with a Sunshade, painted in 1879 and held in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, represents Bastien-Lepage working with the outdoor leisure subject that French Impressionism had popularized while applying to it his own distinct approach. Where Monet and Renoir dissolved figures into light and atmosphere, Bastien-Lepage maintained a higher degree of solid figure construction derived from his academic training under Cabanel. The parasol as a motif appears throughout French painting of the 1870s and 1880s as a signifier of bourgeois or peasant femininity in outdoor settings, and Bastien-Lepage's treatment emphasizes the specific quality of filtered light beneath a sun umbrella. The Fitzwilliam Museum's holding of the work reflects British collectors' strong interest in Bastien-Lepage during the late nineteenth century, when his work was frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy and commanded high prices from English buyers.

The diffused light beneath the parasol creates a specific tonal situation: the figure is partially shaded, with light reflecting up from the ground and filtering through the parasol fabric above. Bastien-Lepage exploits this layered light with careful tonal gradation in the face and dress. The outdoor background is rendered with looser, more atmospheric brushwork than the carefully constructed figure.