Renoir - Luncheon of the Boating Party: Boats

In the autumn of 1880, Renoir was in Chatou. He wrote to his friend Paul Bérard "I am doing a painting of boaters that I have been itching to do for a long time [...] It is already very hard: from time to time you have to try things beyond your strength". He stayed with the Fournaises during the completion of his large painting. It was then acquired by the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel and exhibited at the seventh Impressionist exhibition in 1881.

A few years later, in 1923, the collector Duncan Phillips bought the painting from Durand-Ruel's sons. For this art lover who had opened the first private American museum of modern art in Washington, The Luncheon of the Boating Party was "one of the greatest masterpieces in the world." He predicted with clairvoyance: "people will travel thousands of miles to see it."

This painting also marks a turning point in Renoir's work: it sums up his work over a dozen years. With a subdued touch, he composes a complex but more synthetic scene than the Bal du Moulin de la Galette. He also masters the sunny light that translates the warmth of these friendly lunches, a certain idea of ​​happiness that has today become the image of a golden age.

For this scarf we reproduced the distant shot of the painting with two sailboats and a swimmer.

The Boating Party's Luncheon, 1880-1881
The Philips Collection, Washington