Pensive Young Woman Leaning on Her Elbow 1908

This hazy painting of a woman leaning on her elbow – probably made with oil paint, at some point! – it’s as if Renoir has conjured her out of thin air. The woman is flushed with feeling. The material of her shawl is really activated through these very soft and light brushstrokes, it almost looks like she's wrapped in pure pigment. There’s a really nice contrast between the looser brushwork of the shawl and the more defined features of her face. But even then, her features are soft and indistinct. What was Renoir trying to capture? He was probably thinking about Titian and other Renaissance painters, who were also thinking about representing the human form in all its glory. It reminds me of when I’m in the studio. I want to find this balance between representation and abstraction, where you can see something familiar, but it's also open to interpretation, and alive to possibility. These artists all inform one another, across time.