'Tête de femme blonde' comes from Renoir’s mature period. Having spent much of his time in Paris and other Northern cities, in 1908, the year he painted the present work, Renoir and his family settled in Cagnes, a village in the South of France. During this period Renoir turned to those close to him to be his models.

Renoir had by this time achieved great commercial success, allowing him the artistic freedom to depict his subjects outside the confines of strict portraiture. He was undertaking fewer large-scale paintings, concentrating instead on smaller and more informal portrait studies.

In 1908, he created a series of intimate portrait busts, including the present work and 'Fillette au cheapeau de paille', which is now in the collection of Musée d’Orsay. Inspired by the light and colours of the Mediterranean these works have a warmer colour scheme and Renoir’s touch grew increasingly fluent and supple, modelling forms with the loaded brush. In 'Tête de femme blonde', the warm light suffuses across the woman’s face and a myriad of colours reflect off her white shirt.

'Tête de femme blonde' first belonged to Maurice Gangnat, an important collector of Renoir’s work. His collection, including the present work, was famously sold in a major 1925 auction at Hotel Drouot and was acquired there by Galerie Druet, one of the foremost Parisian galleries of the day.