¶ … Luncheon of the Boating Party
Pierre Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir saw an abundance of beautiful things in the world and his paintings expressed a never-ending sense of joy and discovery. With his brilliant use of natural light and color, he shows the extraordinary splendor of everyday life. A prime example of the artist's ability to capture the joy of a single moment on canvas can be seen in The Luncheon of the Boating Party. This painting depicts the carefree gathering of French revelers, having just concluded a convivial meal. Renoir recreates the beauty of the river scene with the posing of models, all friends of the artist; his use of vibrant color applied in small brush strokes to recreate natural light and a richness in texture, and his use of contrasting white with black. All these elements come together to show one of life's greatest pleasures; the joy of eating and drinking with friends.
This painting marks the culmination of Renoir's Impressionist period, from 1873 to 1880. During this time he lived in an attic apartment in the Montmartre section of Paris, having many friends but little money. He once insisted on the price of 425 francs for a painting, as this was the exact amount he owed for rent. Yet it was a wonderful time, when his artistic genius flourished with the support of fellow artists of the Impressionist movement, among them Claude Monet. Alfred Sisley, and Edouard Manet. They persevered with their new technique of dabbing the color on the canvas in small dots to create their paintings, undeterred by the ridicule of contemporary art critics. After the disastrous exhibition of 1876, when they did not even sell enough paintings to cover expenses, art critic Albert Wolf wrote this scathing review: "Try to bring M. Renoir to reason; tell him about drawing, color, execution, purpose, and he will laugh in your face. Try to explain to M. Renoir that woman's torso is not a mass of decomposing flesh, with violet-toned green spots all over it, indicating a corpse,...
Monet responded by prophetically declaring that the critics were always mistaken and they should worry only if the critics had praised them. (Renoir, p 159)
Painting the seemingly casual scene depicted in The Luncheon of the Boating Party was a huge undertaking for the artist. Renoir felt that he was attempting a work that was perhaps beyond his powers, and he took many months to complete it. The large canvas (51 inches by 68 inches) includes several detailed portraits, an intricate still life and a landscape; any one of these segments could have been the subject of a single work. Many of Renoir's friends and models can be recognized in the group, including his future wife Aline Charigot, in the left foreground holding a puppy. One of the models, Baron Barbier also served as a stage manager for the event, getting boats for the background and rounding up models. (Renoir, 211). Renoir had made a similar expansive "real life" scene with Bal at the Moulin de la Gallette. This painting shows an open-air dance hall. A small group is seated in the foreground while several well-dressed couples dance in the background. As with Boating Party, the models used were Renoir's friends. The setting, Moulin de la Gallette, was a popular dance hall for working class families. They danced for the love of it, with happy abandon. Renoir knew most of them and felt perfectly at home there. It was the people's Paris he had known as a child, growing up as the son of a tailor, in a large working class family. (Gaunt,10)
In these paintings, Renoir uses small strokes and vibrant colors to simulate actual reflected light. This amazing recreation of natural light, shining through leaves and reflected by the river is further achieved by Renoir's use of optical mixture. He juxtaposes on the canvas tiny comma-like dabs of color, which then merge in the viewer's eye, while retaining their vibrant qualities. He applied his small brushstrokes with a varying touch, forming the background trees…
