Two Sisters (On the Terrace)

In the pictureIn front of a terrace railing sits a girl in a blue dress and red hat, and beside her a little girl in white, wearing a navy hat decorated with flowers, leans against her. At the lower left is a basket holding balls of yarn. Behind them, a river and boats can be seen through the trees. The girls' faces are painted smoothly, while the background and flowers are blurred with soft brushstrokes.

BackgroundRenoir painted it in the spring of 1881 on the terrace of a restaurant at Chatou, outside Paris. The two girls are said to have been not actual sisters but models who posed separately. In the period when he painted this picture, Renoir was beginning to have doubts about the blurry style of Impressionism, and here the faces have already regained crisp outlines. As its accession number (1933.455) indicates, it entered the Art Institute of Chicago in 1933.

Puzzle tipThe colors are distinct: red hat, blue dress, navy flowered hat and white dress, green background. Complete the two faces and hats first, then fill in the dress by the direction of its blue folds, and the background by the shades of green and the bright band of the river. The dots of color in the yarn basket make a good reference point.