Pierre Auguste Renoir
French, 1841­1919
Two Sisters (On the Terrace)
1881
Oil on canvas
100.5 x 81 cm
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, 1933.455

The well-dressed older sister looks off into the distance. In contrast, her younger sister may have just dashed into view from play, and she looks right at us. 

The landscape behind them, painted with expressive brush strokes, represents the suburban town of Chatou, near Paris. The colors of the yarn in the basket are bright and pure, as if they made up the palette from which Renoir created and mixed the colors used in the rest of the painting.