Seeing Baseball in Luncheon of the Boating Party

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Experiment Station

To celebrate our 90th anniversary The Phillips Collection held an all-day birthday party attended by 4,400 people. In honor of the event, my colleagues in the education department and I were asked to give half hour tours every hour on the special 90th anniversary installation of Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party. The museum’s masterpiece is on display in its original location in a gallery in the Phillips family home, which was, when Luncheon of the Boating Party debuted there on New Year’s Day 1924, known as the Main Gallery.

Post author Paul Ruther takes visitors through a time machine to 1924 in a gallery tour. Photo: Brooke Rosenblatt

I thought it would be fun to reacquaint visitors with the Boating Party by describing what it would be like to view it in its original location as a form of time travel. I described the room as it looked then, with couches, rugs, ashtrays—in case anyone wanted to smoke—and a skylight. I let them know that in 1924 Calvin Coolidge was president, gas cost an average of 21 cents per gallon, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was first performed that year, and one of the year’s most popular movies was The Thief of Baghdad starring Douglas Fairbanks.

Perhaps the most interesting bit of trivia about the historic year of 1924, however, was that Duncan Phillips’s beloved Washington Senators baseball team won the World Series—remember his wife Marjorie’s most famous painting Night Baseball(1951) featured the hometown team. The Senators took game seven from the New York Giants winning four games to three, when future hall-of-famer Walter Johnson came in to pitch relief in a 12 inning game. I don’t know if Duncan Phillips ever made the connection, but the year Luncheon of the Boating Party first went on view was the first year in baseball history that a major league team from Washington ever won the World Series. The Senators have become the Washington Nationals, but we’re still waiting for the second World Series victory.

Was it a coincidence that the Senators won the World Series that year? I hardly think so.

Paul Ruther, Manager of Teacher Programs

Phillips Petting Zoo: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Brooke Rosenblatt

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881. Oil on canvas, 51 ¼ x 69 1/8 inches. Acquired 1923. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

I’ve given lots of tours of Luncheon of the Boating Party, and almost every time I talk about it, someone brings up the girl in the lower left cooing at her dog. I have been known to make a pretty bad joke, saying, well how else would you know the scene is set in France without the dog at the table? Kidding aside, the pup in the painting plays an important role.

Ever notice how almost all of the characters in the artwork seem to be engaged in flirtatious exchanges, except the girl with the dog? Guess what—she’s Renoir’s girlfriend and future wife, Aline Charigot. With his education, Renoir would have known that dogs in art operate as symbols of loyalty and fidelity, that’s why people often call their pets Fido. So it’s not surprising Renoir would have painted his future bride nuzzling a cute little pooch rather than romancing another character in the painting.

In addition to Luncheon of the Boating Party, Renoir created a number of important works where dogs play a prominent role. Fifteen years earlier, he painted At the Inn of Mother Anthony, Marlotte (1866) featuring diners gathered around a table with a dog (a poodle? a Bichon frisé?) curled up underneath. At New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, check out his stylish portrait of the Charpentier family complete with their Newfoundland named Porthos.

Renoir depicted Aline in the company of dogs at least two other times. In The Apple Seller (c. 1890) she sits with two young children and playful dog. Thirty years after Luncheon of the Boating Party, he painted a tender portrait of an older Aline holding her new little puppy Bob.

Luncheon of the Pumpkin Party

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Experiment Station

Photo courtesy of Fred Talcott.

During the museum’s blowout 90th anniversary kickoff weekend this past January, I struck up conversation with a very interesting gentleman named Fred Talcott. Among other things, Mr. Talcott is part of a pumpkin carving group that has a very artistic approach to making jack’o lanterns—see the above rendition of Luncheon of the Boating Party with a Halloween theme! The pumpkin carving festival goes on through mid-day today. For more information on where to see these artsy pumpkins, visit The Holtorf Pumpkin Association’s website. Happy Halloween!

Amanda Jiron-Murphy, In-Gallery Interpretation and Public Programs Coordinator