Exploring the Seine

Each week for the duration of the exhibition, we’ll focus on one work of art from Renoir and Friends: Luncheon of the Boating Party, on view October 7, 2017-January 7, 2018.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Seine at Chatou, 1874

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Seine at Chatou (La Seine à Chatou), 1874. Oil on canvas, 20 × 25 in. Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection

As early as 1869, Pierre-Auguste Renoir was exploring the banks of the Seine River west of Paris, seeking subjects for his developing Impressionist style, often painting outdoor landscapes with his friend Claude Monet. His mother lived near Louveciennes, not far from Chatou, where he would frequent the Maison Fournaise with its restaurant, lodging, and boats for hire. The Maison Fournaise would become the backdrop for his masterwork Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880-81), with members of the Fournaise family serving as models. In this lively rendering of a gusty day on the water, Renoir includes a sailboat, signaling in his painting the growing popularity of the sport.

Gustave Caillebotte the Yachtsman

Each week for the duration of the exhibition, we’ll focus on one work of art from Renoir and Friends: Luncheon of the Boating Party, on view October 7, 2017-January 7, 2018.

Gustave Caillebotte, Sailboats on the Seine at Argenteuil, 1893

Gustave Caillebotte, Sailboats on the Seine at Argenteuil (Voiliers sur la Seine à Argenteuil), 1893. Oil on canvas; 28 7⁄8 × 17 in. Private collection

Like his good friend and fellow artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Gustave Caillebotte spent a significant amount of time on the Seine west of Paris painting scenes such as this one. Caillebotte was born into a family that made its money in the textile business and inherited a fortune. As a young man at his family’s country retreat on the Yerres River, he enjoyed rowing and paddling in skiffs. He eventually purchased his own property on the Seine in nearby Petit-Gennevilliers, which became a perfect base from which to participate in regattas and to develop his skills as a yachtsman. By 1879, Caillebotte owned his own sailboat, participated in regattas in Argenteuil, and had joined the Cercle de la Voile de Paris (Sailing Club of Paris); he became a vice president of the club in 1880.

Renoir depicted Caillebotte in Luncheon of the Boating Party—he is the athletic man in the lower right, dressed for boating, with the hat not of an oarsman but of a gentleman sailor, and he appears to look right past all who surround him to the boats and the river beyond the balcony. Boating scenes were ideal for the two Impressionists, in its combination of a fashionable, contemporary subject with the painterly challenge of capturing sunlit figures and the river’s reflective surface.

Ephrussi’s Invaluable Support

Each week for the duration of the exhibition, we’ll focus on one work of art from Renoir and Friends: Luncheon of the Boating Party, on view October 7, 2017-January 7, 2018.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Albert Cahen d’Anvers, 1881

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Albert Cahen d’Anvers, 1881, Oil on canvas; 31 1/2 × 25 1⁄8 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Of all the people depicted in Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party, perhaps the most vital to the artist’s emerging reputation at the time was Charles Ephrussi. As a critic, collector, and advocate, Ephrussi offered Renoir valuable support and introduced him to a number of prominent members of society who commissioned him to paint their portraits. Together with the elegant Marguerite Charpentier, Ephrussi influenced the placement of Renoir’s portrait of her with her children (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) in the Salon of 1879, helping to shift Renoir’s career toward critical and commercial success. In advance of the show, Ephrussi had expressed interest in seeing the recent portrait, and Renoir gladly took him to the Charpentiers’ house for a viewing. Ephrussi, who had purchased work by Renoir for his collection, emerged as a vocal advocate for Impressionism in 1880 when he praised Caillebotte’s paintings in the fifth Impressionism exhibition, and, in a review of the sixth, deplored the absence of Manet, Monet, Sisley, and Renoir. Ephrussi used his influence to get Renoir an advantageous hanging at the Salon—that Marguerite Charpentier was a prominent member of Parisian society did not hurt the placement of her portrait either, nor its critical reception.

Charles Ephrussi introduced Renoir to the Cahen d’Anvers, a prominent Jewish family who proceeded to commission portraits from him. In addition to this image of Albert Cahen d’Anvers, Renoir painted Albert’s three nieces, the daughters of his brother Louis, and his wife, Louise. Ephrussi handled for Renoir the submission of these portraits to the Salon of 1881.