The
Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1876,
Oil on canvas, 129.5 x 172.7 cm
or Le déjeuner des canotiers
Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, DC. Pride of the Phillips
Collection, it was bought from the artist in 1881, and remained in
Durand-Ruel's private collection until 1923, when his sons sold it to
Duncan Phillips
The painting celebrate the triumph of youth: the women are radiantly
beautiful, the men as dashing and debonair as young blades ought to be.
Renoir has become famous as a painter of the nude; but what painter has
clothed the human form more entrancingly? And with unbelievable
virtuosity, he has animated his figures with an amazing variety of
postures and activities--bold, relaxed, eager, withdrawn,
flirtatious--all of them graceful and natural.
There are bits of still life, shimmering patterns of the light
fixtures, children--like the dainty blonde creature in the lower
left--tucked in here and there. One even fancies that the buzz of
voices, the shuffle of feet, and the gay dance tune are part of the
composition.
This is one of Renoir's largest and most ambitious compositions; yet
he was not to regard it as one of his best paintings. Despite its
apparent crowding and turbulence, it reveals a studied organization. The
triangular foreground group is related through silhouette and color to
the group at the trees; and this group, through yellow and gold-brown
tones, becomes part of a vertical unit which provides stability to the
right of the canvas. The other side allows easy entrance into space over
a ground dappled blue and pink--Renoir's way of creating the effect of
sunlight and shadow without introducing neutral dark values. By
emphasizing the verticality of the dancing figures through sharp color
contrasts, Renoir echoes verticality again, and repeats it playfully in
the posts in the background.
These are only a few of the linear relationships; varied curves set
up another series of rhythms. Rich color is contrasted with plain, and
each is developed into an independent sub-theme: reds, yellows, blues,
greens, blacks. Light flickers across the scene, resting here and there
for compositional emphasis. Subject and method have been completely
integrated into a unity which is one of the great achievements in the
art of painting. |
