Mère et Enfant 1910

Pierre-Auguste Renoir made this painting of a mother and child, using oil on canvas, with colours so soft they seem to breathe. It's a painting that invites you to slow down and appreciate its textures. I’m drawn to the way Renoir builds up the surfaces of the figures, with these tiny, shimmering brushstrokes, particularly in the dress of the mother and child. Look closely at the floral background too: see how the paint kind of blooms outwards like the petals of a flower, so that the background feels like a living, breathing thing in itself? There’s a looseness and freedom to his painting style, that to me speaks of intuition, a feeling for colour, and a real attention to capturing light as it falls and shifts. I think of Bonnard, another painter who revelled in colour and light, and who also reminds us that art is more about feeling and seeing than about perfectly describing the world.