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One of Art History’s Best Paintings to Relish Up Close
Celebrating the creative techniques in Renoir’s greatest work
I have vivid memories of first seeing this painting in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The experience was something of a revelation to me, for whilst I had seen many Impressionist paintings in reproduction, viewing this work in its full technicolour splendour seemed to give me an insight into what Impressionism was truly for: a picture of modernity in the full flow of life, captured in exuberant colour.
Several aspects of the painting are worth noting from the beginning. Notice how Renoir has entirely filled the canvas with activity, giving the sense that if the image could pivot left or right — like a head turning — then we would see yet more people dancing, drinking and socialising. In other words, the painting deliberately takes the atmosphere as its subject, an atmosphere that is not defined by the edges of the picture but exists all around in every direction.
Notice too how the vantage point of the artist is from head height, as if we have just walked into the venue, emphasised by the fact that the people closest to us are deliberately placed to sit below our natural gaze. As the viewer, this position places us almost physically within the action, as if we are looking from a very human viewpoint and…
