Lucie Berard (Child in White)

Lucie Berard (Child in White) is an oil on canvas painting created in 1883 by the celebrated French artist, Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Executed during the peak years of Impressionism (c. 1860-1890s), this intimate portrait captures the young daughter of Paul Bérard, one of Renoir’s most important patrons and friends during the 1880s. The work exemplifies Renoir’s command of light and atmosphere, moving beyond the strict optical realism of his earlier career toward a greater emphasis on the soft texture and emotional warmth of the subject.

Renoir renders the sitter, Lucie Bérard, with characteristic gentle brushwork and a luminous palette. The child is positioned against an indistinct, verdant background, allowing the viewer's attention to settle entirely on her expression and the complex, flickering treatment of her costume. The title refers to the subject’s white dress, which the artist defines not through rigid outline but through subtle variations in shadow and reflected color. Renoir employs broken, layered brushstrokes, a hallmark of his Impressionist style, using slight hints of blue and yellow to suggest the voluminous quality of the fabric and the subtle glow of light falling across the surface.

While highly focused on modern life in France, Renoir’s portraits simultaneously show a deep awareness of 18th-century French portrait traditions, successfully merging historical elegance with contemporary immediacy. This piece is significant as it demonstrates the artist's movement toward a slightly more structured compositional approach, anticipating the classical style that would define his later career. Lucie Berard (Child in White) resides in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. As a highly valued masterwork from 1883, this image has entered the public domain in many countries, ensuring that high-quality prints and reproductions remain widely accessible for study and appreciation.