Portrait of Claude Renoir

Portrait of Claude Renoir depicts the artist's youngest son, born in 1901, here shown as an infant. Renoir made numerous paintings of his children, treating them as studies in innocent vitality rather than formal commissions. Claude — known as 'Coco' — would himself become a ceramicist. This painting belongs to the rich body of domestic works Renoir produced after settling near Cagnes-sur-Mer, where family life and southern light combined to give his late work its characteristic golden warmth and rounded, sculptural quality.

Paint is applied in soft, blending strokes with little hard edge, giving the infant's face an almost porcelain smoothness. Warm ochres and pinks dominate. The background is loosely handled, directing full attention to the child's face and expression.