Auguste Renoir - Two Young Girls at the Piano [1892]

Auguste Renoir - Two Young Girls at the Piano [1892], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In late 1891 or early 1892 Renoir was invited by the French government to execute a painting for a new museum in Paris, the Musée du Luxembourg, which was to be devoted to the work of living artists. He chose as his subject two girls at the piano. Aware of the intense scrutiny to which his submission would be subjected, Renoir lavished extraordinary care on this project, developing and refining the composition in a series of five canvases. The Lehman painting and the nearly identical version formerly in the collection of Renoir's fellow Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte have long been regarded as the most accomplished variants of this intimate and engaging scene of bourgeois domestic life.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 111.8 x 86.4 cm]

Auguste Renoir - A Young Girl with Daisies [1889]

Auguste Renoir - A Young Girl with Daisies [1889], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

"I have taken up again, never to abandon it, my old style, soft and light of touch," Renoir announced to his dealer Durand-Ruel in 1888. Turning to the idle pastimes of young, middle-class girls, Renoir gave inimitable expression to his feeling that a picture, above all, "should be something likeable, joyous and pretty - yes, pretty. There are enough ugly things in life not to add to them." These paintings, which incline toward the graceful informality of Fragonard's work and the demure naturalism of Corot's, found a ready market in the early 1890s.

[Oil on canvas, 65.1 x 54 cm]

Auguste Renoir - The Daughters of Catulle Mendès, Huguette, Claudine, and Helyonne [1888]

Auguste Renoir - The Daughters of Catulle Mendès, Huguette, Claudine, and Helyonne [1888], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Hoping to recapture the success he had achieved with Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children at the Salon of 1879, Renoir asked his friend Catulle Mendès for permission to paint his three daughters. Mendès was a well-known writer and publisher of Symbolist poetry; his companion, Augusta Holmès, a virtuoso pianist and composer, was the mother of these girls. 

Renoir sent the portrait to a group exhibition in 1888 that was a critical disaster; the painting was ignored again at the 1890 Salon. It has since emerged, however, as one of Renoir's most impressive works, realized in his new, aggressive coloristic style. In the fluid brushwork and treatment of theme, the portrait pays homage to Fragonard and other eighteenth-century genre painters.

[Oil on canvas, 161.9 x 129.9 cm]

Auguste Renoir - Oarsmen at Chatou [1879]

Auguste Renoir - Oarsmen at Chatou [1879], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Rowing was the foremost attraction at Chatou, while only a few kilometers upstream Argenteuil's more reliable winds attracted sailors. Here a man brings a pleasure gig to shore. These two-person boats were designed for more relaxed recreation than the sculls we see in the distance. The rower sat facing his companion, who controlled the rudder by means of ropes. The man in this gig, wearing the boater's typical costume of short jacket and straw hat, may be the artist's brother Edmond. The man standing on the bank, similarly attired, is probably the painter Gustave Caillebotte, a devoted rowing enthusiast. The woman may be Aline Charigot, who became Renoir's wife and was a favorite model.

The painting captures the brilliance of sun and water, summer and youth. In the water, skips of strong blues and white alternate. Their shimmering intensity is enhanced by the equally strong presence of orange in the boat's reflection and the scarlet accent of Aline's bow. Renoir has put into practice aspects of current colour theory. The principle of simultaneous contrast suggested that colors were perceived more strongly when juxtaposed with their opposites - orange with blue, for example, or green with red. The silky texture of Renoir's feathery brushstrokes mirrors the languid and leisurely scenes.

[Oil on canvas, 81.2 x 100.2 cm]