A young woman and a little girl sit on the terrace of a riverside restaurant at Chatou, near Paris, with a basket of yarn. Behind them, through the leaves, boats pass on the Seine. Renoir painted it in 1881.

Despite the title, they were not sisters. The older one was Jeanne Darlaud, an 18-year-old actress; nobody knows who the child was. Look at the bright red hat and the flowers on it, painted in quick, thick dabs.