Although Renoir painted girls much more often than he painted girls, there are cases when he does paint other boys that are not his sons. In most of these paintings he does not feel the need to feminize them, but does indeed paint them as boys, and in some cases, even as un-idealized boys.
Take for example Renoir’s portrait Madame Claude Monet et son fils, 1874. Here Renoir paints one of his closest contemporary’s sons. The boy is of a similar age to Jean and Coco in Renoir’s portraits of them. He is wearing a similar outfit to Livingston in Sargent’s painting. It is a blue sailor suit with a collar and a yellow hat. His hair is short and mostly covered. Further, the boy is sprawled out in a rather undignified, even ugly looking position, and he does not have the fine detail in his face, hair, and expression that Renoir reserved for his later portraits of his sons. His neck appears too short and his leg too long. He is not painted as a pretty child.
Why then, would Renoir choose to paint his sons in a manner not only so different than the norm for society, but also different from the way he paints the son of his contemporary. It seems to have to do with the fact that they were his sons rather than any old boys. Perhaps Renoir felt he had more of a right to transform his own sons’ identities, or perhaps his peculiar way of painting his sons did indicate a peculiarity in their relationship with their father.
Abover:Renoir, Piere Auguste. Madame Claude Monet et son fils, National Galley, Washington DC.