Claude Renoir, Looking Down (La Tête baissée) from Twelve Original Lithographs by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Douze lithographies originales de Pierre-Auguste Renoir) is a lithograph created by Pierre-Auguste Renoir around 1904. This sheet is one component of the significant portfolio Douze lithographies originales de Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Twelve Original Lithographs by Pierre-Auguste Renoir). This late-career print demonstrates the artist’s continued mastery of graphic mediums despite the increasing health limitations he faced during the early 1900s.
The subject of the work is Claude Renoir (1901-1969), the youngest son of the renowned Impressionist painter. Often depicted by his father, Claude is captured here in a moment of quiet contemplation, his head bowed, his hair gently falling forward. Renoir utilizes the lithographic stone to achieve the soft, atmospheric rendering characteristic of his oil canvases. The line work is delicate yet confident, using rich blacks and subtle tonal variations to define the contour of the boy’s profile and the gentle curve of his neck, focusing the viewer’s attention entirely on the figure. This intimate portrait is exemplary of the domesticity and familial intimacy often found in the artist's works.
Though the original design for this sheet was executed circa 1904, the comprehensive portfolio containing the twelve prints was formally published posthumously in 1919, the year of the artist’s death. Compiled by the influential art dealer Ambroise Vollard, these late prints were instrumental in cementing Renoir’s legacy within the graphic arts community. The creation period of c. 1904 places this work firmly within Renoir's mature period, showcasing his distinctive ability to translate the painterly qualities of Impressionism into the medium of prints. As this important French masterwork eventually transitioned into the public domain, its significance as a representation of early 20th-century printmaking has only grown. This valuable example of Renoir's late output resides in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
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