''The Swing'' (French: ''La balançoire'') is an 1876 oil on canvas painting by the French artist

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, feminine sensuality ...

who was a leading exponent of the

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...

style. The painting measures 92 x 73 centimetres and is in the Musée d’Orsay. Renoir executed the painting in what are now the

Musée de Montmartre The Musée de Montmartre ( en, Montmartre Museum) is located in Montmartre, at 8-14 rue Cortot in the 18th (XVIII) arrondissement of Paris, France. It was founded in 1960 and was classified as a Musée de France in 2003. The buildings were for ...

gardens. He had rented a cottage in the gardens so that he could be closer to the ''Moulin de la Galette'' where he was engaged in painting ''

Bal du moulin de la Galette ''Bal du moulin de la Galette'' (commonly known as ''Dance at Le moulin de la Galette'') is an 1876 painting by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It is housed at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and is one of Impressionism's most celebrated masterpi ...

''.

Description

Renoir's people seem to stand on a forest floor of blossoms. The girl on the swing could be fifteen, her pink dress with a hat on head increases the charm of painting. The quivering light is rendered by the patches of pale colour, particularly on the clothing and the ground. This particularly annoyed the critics when the painting was shown at the Impressionist exhibition of 1877. The model was

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, ''Lunche ...

, a favourite of Renoir's who appears in many of his paintings. The two men are Renoir's brother Edmond and a painter friend

Norbert Goeneutte Norbert Goeneutte (23 July 1854 – 9 October 1894) was a French painter, etcher and illustrator; notably for the novel ''La Terre'' by Émile Zola. Biography He was born in Paris into a family that had moved there from Saint-Omer 1850.

(also appearing in ''Bal'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swing, The 1876 paintings Paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir Paintings in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay Paintings of Montmartre Paintings of children

Description

See also

References