''Young Woman with a Blue Ribbon'' is an 1888 oil on canvas painting by

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...

, now in the

Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon The Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon (french: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon) is a municipal museum of fine arts in the French city of Lyon. Located near the Place des Terreaux, it is housed in a former Benedictine convent which was active during the 1 ...

. The name of the model is unknown but she can also be seen in other Renoir works such as the young woman splashing the others in ''Les Grandes Baigneuses'' (Renoir, 1887). The painting itself represented a return by Renoir to a gentler, more delicate style after his years of experimenting with Impressionism. As he himself said at the time in a letter to the art dealer

Paul Durand-Ruel Paul Durand-Ruel (31 October 1831, Paris – 5 February 1922, Paris) was a French art dealer associated with the Impressionists and the Barbizon School. Being the first to support artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste ...

"I have taken up again, never to abandon it, my old style, soft and light of touch. This is to give you some idea of my new and final manner of painting".

References

{{19C-painting-stub category:Paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir category:Women in art category:1888 paintings Paintings in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon