''Luncheon of the Boating Party'' french: Le Déjeuner des canotiers is an
1881
Events
January–March
* January 1– 24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans.
* January 13 – War of the Pacific – Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos: The ...
painting by
French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Included in the Seventh
Impressionist Exhibition in 1882, it was identified as the best painting in the show by three critics.
It was purchased from the artist by the dealer-patron
Paul Durand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel (31 October 1831, Paris – 5 February 1922, Paris) was a French art dealer associated with the Impressionists and the Barbizon School. Being the first to support artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste ...
and bought in 1923 (for $125,000) from his son by industrialist
Duncan Phillips, who spent a decade in pursuit of the work.
It is now in
The Phillips Collection
The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips (art collector), Duncan Phillips and Marjorie Acker Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
It shows a richness of form, a fluidity of brush stroke, and a flickering light.
Description
The painting, combining figures, still-life, and landscape in one work, depicts a group of Renoir's friends relaxing on a balcony at the
Maison Fournaise
The Maison Fournaise (; "House of Fournaise") is a restaurant and museum located on the Île des Impressionnistes, a long island in Seine river in Chatou, west of Paris.
History
In 1857, Alphonse Fournaise bought land in Chatou to open a boat ...
restaurant along the
Seine river in
Chatou
Chatou () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Chatou is a part of the affluent suburbs of western Paris and is on the northwest side of the Seine river about from the city's center.
Hi ...
, France. The painter and art patron,
Gustave Caillebotte
Gustave Caillebotte (; 19 August 1848 – 21 February 1894) was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was known for his early ...
, is seated in the lower right. Renoir's future wife,
Aline Charigot, is in the foreground playing with a small dog, an
affenpinscher
The Affenpinscher, also known as the Monkey Terrier, is a terrier-like toy Pinscher breed of dog.
History
The breed is German in origin and dates back to the seventeenth century. The name "affenpinscher" is derived from the German ''Affe'' (a ...
; she replaced an earlier woman who sat for the painting but with whom Renoir became annoyed.
On the table is fruit and wine.
The diagonal of the railing serves to demarcate the two halves of the composition, one densely packed with figures, the other all but empty, save for the two figures of the proprietor's daughter Louise-Alphonsine Fournaise and her brother, Alphonse Fournaise, Jr, which are made prominent by this contrast. In this painting Renoir has captured a great deal of light. The main focus of light is coming from the large opening in the balcony, beside the large singleted man in the hat. The
singlets of both men in the foreground and the table-cloth all work together to reflect this light and send it through the whole composition.
The painting is thought to show the influence of Italian Renaissance painter
Paolo Veronese on Renoir's style, in particular, ''
The Wedding Feast at Cana'' (1563), one of Renoir's favorite Veronese paintings at the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
, which depicts a similar banquet theme to that of the ''Luncheon''.
[Lucy, Martha. John House (2012). ''Renoir in the Barnes Foundation''. Yale University Press. pp. 8–9. . .]
Interactive image
Subjects depicted
As he often did in his paintings, Renoir included several of his friends in ''Luncheon of the Boating Party''.
Identification of the sitters was made in 1912 by
Julius Meier-Graefe
, ro, Reșița), Resicabánya Dist., Krassó-Szörény Co, Bánság, Royal Hungary, Imperial and Royal Austria(now Romania)
, death_date =
, death_place = Vevey, VD, Switzerland
, nationality = German, Hungarian Ge ...
. Among them are the following:
* The seamstress
Aline Charigot, who is holding an
affenpinscher
The Affenpinscher, also known as the Monkey Terrier, is a terrier-like toy Pinscher breed of dog.
History
The breed is German in origin and dates back to the seventeenth century. The name "affenpinscher" is derived from the German ''Affe'' (a ...
dog, sits near the bottom left of the composition. Renoir married her in 1890, and they had three sons.
*
Charles Ephrussi
Charles Ephrussi (24 December 1849 – 30 September 1905) was a French art critic, art historian, and art collector. He also was a part-owner (from 1885) and then editor (from 1894) as well as a contributor to the ''Gazette des Beaux-Arts'', th ...
—wealthy amateur art historian, collector, and editor of the ''
Gazette des Beaux-Arts
The ''Gazette des Beaux-Arts'' was a French art review, founded in 1859 by Édouard Houssaye, with Charles Blanc as its first chief editor. Assia Visson Rubinstein was chief editorial secretary under the direction of George Wildenstein from 19 ...
''—appears wearing a top hat in the background. The younger man to whom Ephrussi appears to be speaking, more casually attired in a brown coat and cap, may be
Jules Laforgue
Jules Laforgue (; 16 August 1860 – 20 August 1887) was a Franco-Uruguayan poet, often referred to as a Symbolist poet. Critics and commentators have also pointed to Impressionism as a direct influence and his poetry has been called "part-symbol ...
, his personal secretary and also a poet and critic.
* Actress
Ellen Andrée drinks from a glass in the center of the composition. Seated across from her is Baron Raoul Barbier, former mayor of colonial Saigon.
* Placed within but peripheral to the party are the proprietor's daughter
Louise-Alphonsine Fournaise and her brother,
Alphonse Fournaise, Jr., both sporting traditional straw boaters and appearing to the left side of the image. Alphonsine is the smiling woman leaning on the railing; Alphonse, who was responsible for the boat rental, is the leftmost figure.
* Also wearing boaters are figures appearing to be Renoir's close friends Eugène Pierre Lestringez, a bureaucrat, and Paul Lhote, himself an artist. Renoir depicts them flirting with the actress
Jeanne Samary
Jeanne Samary (4 March 1857 as Léontine Pauline Jeanne Samary in Neuilly-sur-Seine – 18 September 1890 in Paris) was a French actress at the Comédie-Française and a model for Auguste Renoir, including for Renoir's 1881 painting, ''Lunc ...
in the upper righthand corner of the painting.
* In the right foreground,
Gustave Caillebotte
Gustave Caillebotte (; 19 August 1848 – 21 February 1894) was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was known for his early ...
wears a white boater's shirt and flat-topped straw boater's hat as he sits backwards in his chair next to actress Angèle Legault and Italian journalist Adrien Maggiolo. An art patron, painter, and important figure in the impressionist circle, Caillebotte was also an avid boatman and drew on that subject for several works.
Close-ups
Actual location
Contemporary critical reception
At the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition in 1882, the painting generally received praise from critics. "It is fresh and free without being too bawdy," wrote Paul de Charry in ''
Le Pays
''Le Pays'' (''The Land'') is a three-act opera by Guy Ropartz with a libretto by Charles Le Goffic. It was composed between 1908 and 1910 and was premiered in 1912 at Nancy. It is an important example of the Breton cultural renaissance of th ...
'', March 10, 1882. In ''
La Vie Moderne'' (March 11, 1882), Armand Silvestre wrote, "...one of the best things
enoirhas painted...There are bits of drawing that are completely remarkable, drawing – true drawing – that is a result of the juxtaposition of hues and not of line. It is one of the most beautiful pieces that this insurrectionist art by Independent artists has produced." Alternatively, ''
Le Figaro
''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...
'' published Albert Wolff's comment on March 2, 1882: "If he had learned to draw, Renoir would have a very pretty picture..."
In popular culture
*Actor
Edward G. Robinson (1893-1973) is quoted as saying: “For over thirty years I made periodic visits to Renoir's ''Luncheon of the Boating Party'' in a
Washington museum, and stood before that magnificent masterpiece hour after hour, day after day, plotting ways to steal it."
*The painting was featured prominently in
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film ''
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain'' — released in English as ''Amélie'' (2001). The most prominent reference is a comparison between the film's protagonist, Amélie, and the woman in the centre sipping a glass (
Ellen Andrée), seemingly gazing out of the canvas, uninterested, while everyone else is enjoying the day together. The painting and its relationship to Amélie is also featured in the 2015
musical version of the film in the song "The Girl with the Glass".
*A
homage to this painting appears in the final panel of ''
On the False Earths'' (1977), the seventh volume of
Jean-Claude Mézières
Jean-Claude Mézières (; 23 September 1938 – 23 January 2022) was a French ''bandes dessinées'' artist and illustrator. Born in Paris and raised in nearby Saint-Mandé, he was introduced to drawing by his elder brother and influenced by co ...
and
Pierre Christin
Pierre Christin (; born 27 July 1938) is a French comics creator and writer.
Biography
Christin was born at Saint-Mandé in 1938.
After graduating from the Sorbonne, Christin pursued graduate studies in political science at SciencesPo and be ...
's long-running
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
series ''
Valérian and Laureline
''Valérian and Laureline'' (french: Valérian et Laureline), also known as ''Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent'' (french: Valérian, agent spatio-temporel) or just ''Valérian'', is a French science fiction comics series, created by writer Pie ...
''.
*Renoir's creation of the painting is dramatized in Susan Vreeland
Susan Joyce Vreeland (January 20, 1946 – August 23, 2017) was an American author. Several of her books deal with the relationship between art and fiction. ''The Passion of Artemisia'' is a fictionalised investigation of some aspects of the l ...
's 2007 novel ''Luncheon of the Boating Party''.
See also
* List of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
This is an incomplete list of paintings by Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Renoir painted about 4000 paintings that have sold at auction for as much as $78.1 million (in 1990). The largest collection of Renoir paintings is at the Barn ...
* ''Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise
''Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise'', also known as ''The Rowers' Lunch'', ''Déjeuner chez Fournaise'', or ''Déjeuner au Restaurant Fournaise'', is a 1875 painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It portrays three people having lunch at the Maison F ...
'', 1879 painting by Renoir
References
External links
''Luncheon of the Boating Party''
(The Phillips Collection
The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips (art collector), Duncan Phillips and Marjorie Acker Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the ...
, Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
)
Essay on this painting from the book ''Beauty and Terror'' by Brian A. Oard
Entry on this painting at Artble
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luncheon Of The Boating Party
Paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Paintings in Washington, D.C.
1881 paintings
Dogs in art
Food and drink paintings
Genre paintings
Group portraits by French artists