Of course, Renoir did not start off painting his sons as daughters. Renoir’s paintings of Pierre, his eldest son, born in 1885, are less numerous than those of his other two sons, (White 160), especially at the age when it would have been possible to paint him as a girl. Even in these cases, Renoir did not feminize his son. For example, in The Child at the Breast (1886), Renoir painted his wife, Aline, nursing Pierre. A small bonnet covers his hair, but Renoir’s focus is not on it at all, but rather on Pierre’s bare bottom and uncovered genitals and Aline’s exposed breast. Pierre is obviously masculine, and Aline’s clear femininity serves as a foil to this.
Renoir painted Pierre in the manner one would expect an artist to paint his son: he painted a few portraits to record key ages, and often poses him with his mother when he is young. There is nothing unique or peculiar about this. There is no obsessive nature to the way he paints Pierre. Perhaps this was because Pierre, as the first son, was to be valued as the carrier of the family name (Gallati 67) and was painted as such. However, it could have equally been because of the veil of mystery surrounding Pierre’s birth. Pierre was born out of wedlock, so Aline and Pierre were kept a secret until nearly a year after the couple married in 1890. (White 151) Renoir’s lack of enthusiasm over his first son could be due to the fact that he was not completely ready to accept his role as a father. Either way, his portrayals of Pierre serve as a contrast to his paintings of his later two sons, because he does not transform Pierre by feminizing him obsessively.
Above: Renoir, Pierre Auguste. Child at the Breast. The Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA.