The second confirmed copy-after-a-master in the collection — inscribed at upper left "After Renoir's Portrait of Paul." Renoir's multiple portraits of his son Paul are among the most warmly humanistic child portraits in French Impressionism. Sidney studied one of these and drew from it in pencil with careful, sustained attention.
The subject is a young boy seen in three-quarter view, his face turned slightly to the right, his expression one of ordinary childhood alertness — neither performing for the painter nor ignoring him. The hair is rendered with fine parallel strokes following its direction from crown to nape, the individual waves captured without stiffness. The ear at left is given the careful attention Sidney brought to all ears.
The hand at lower right is the most individually Sidney-ish element — carefully articulated fingers, the hand resting or slightly raised, described with the deliberate attention to hand anatomy that appears throughout his work. Whether Renoir's original gave him this hand or Sidney added his own observation to it cannot be determined without examining the specific Renoir work referenced.
The jacket or clothing below is indicated in the most summary fashion — a few lines establishing the collar and lapel. Sidney's attention was on the face and the hair.
With Barlach and now Renoir, we see Sidney's copying practice spanning from German Expressionism to French Impressionism — a wide formal education conducted through drawing.