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拍品专文
During the 1870s, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s output concentrated on candid snapshots of modern life, focusing on the faces and surroundings that exemplified the world he inhabited. As a leading artist in the development of Impressionism, Renoir had become known for his depictions of people in intimate compositions, but unlike his Impressionist colleagues, he remained committed to figure painting and portraiture throughout the entirety of his career. With the gestural brushwork and luminous palette that had come to define the Impressionist style, Renoir’s Le canotier de Bougival presents a portrait of a fashionable gentleman out for a day of fun.
Renoir’s portrait of a young boatsman captures a moment of leisure, a new development in modern France. Industrial growth in the early 19th century drew city dwellers to the countryside as, for the first time, rural areas surrounding Paris became accessible by train. On warm summer days, many travelled to the capital’s outskirts to relax in the sunshine. Only a short distance from Paris, Bougival became a popular destination where visitors could spend the day boating and picnicking along the Seine. Renoir was a regular – his parents lived nearby – and he began to paint the area during the 1860s, notably representing the fashionable floating restaurant La Grenouillère on the Île de Croissy.
It was Renoir’s time working alongside his close friend Claude Monet, however, that ignited his interest in leisure life along the river. He spent many days in Bougival in the 1870s as well as further up the river in Chatou, frequenting the restaurant Maison Fournaise, a popular spot for amateur oarsmen, artists and actors, and even the occasional aristocrat seeking the gratifications of outdoor life. As Renoir’s friend and biographer Georges Rivière later commented, ‘The infectious gaiety of this carefree crowd, boastful without arrogance and mocking without malice, attracted the painter, for whom the spectacle of popular enjoyments had always been of interest’ (G. Rivière, Renoir et ses amis, Paris, 1921, p. 184).
Renoir easily found a number of willing models along the banks of the Seine. In Le canotier de Bougival, he portrays a man identified by Françoise Daulte as ‘Monsieur de Lauradour’ (F. Daulte, Auguste Renoir: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, vol. 1, Figures, 1860–1890, Paris, 1971, cat. 305). Lauradour was a regular at La Grenouillère and Maison Fournaise, likely meeting Renoir at either establishment, and he appears in two other notable oils of the period – Déjeuner chez Fournaise (Déjeuner de canotiers) (The Art Institute of Chicago) and Le Déjeuner (Barnes Foundation) – both conceived in 1875. In these group scenes, Lauradour is immediately recognisable by his distinctive beard and the stylish trim of his meticulously combed hair. Evidently following the trends in sports fashion at the time, he wears a collarless boating shirt in all three paintings. Scholars have debated whether he was a doctor from an aristocratic family in Poitou, placing him in Renoir’s circle of ex-military friends. Though Lauradour’s biography and background remain speculative, Renoir must have been on friendly terms with his sitter as, during this period, he rarely painted portraits of people he did not know. Certainly, Laraudour appears content in the painter’s presence, pictured in a moment of calm respite in a day spent boating with friends.
Unlike Monet, who continued to paint landscapes throughout the 1870s, Renoir remained committed to portraying the people who embodied the defining elements of modern life. The apparently rapid execution of Le canotier de Bougival was typical of his Impressionist style in the late-1870s: He worked largely en plein air, quickly arresting in paint his initial impressions of colour and light. While the final details of a composition may be added back at his studio, Renoir preferred to respond on site directly and immediately to his subjects. With its marine blues and greens, Le canotier de Bougival calls to mind the Seine’s surface glimmering in the sunshine. The work is a testament to the pictorial possibilities that leisure could offer to a painter of modern life.
Renoir’s portrait of a young boatsman captures a moment of leisure, a new development in modern France. Industrial growth in the early 19th century drew city dwellers to the countryside as, for the first time, rural areas surrounding Paris became accessible by train. On warm summer days, many travelled to the capital’s outskirts to relax in the sunshine. Only a short distance from Paris, Bougival became a popular destination where visitors could spend the day boating and picnicking along the Seine. Renoir was a regular – his parents lived nearby – and he began to paint the area during the 1860s, notably representing the fashionable floating restaurant La Grenouillère on the Île de Croissy.
It was Renoir’s time working alongside his close friend Claude Monet, however, that ignited his interest in leisure life along the river. He spent many days in Bougival in the 1870s as well as further up the river in Chatou, frequenting the restaurant Maison Fournaise, a popular spot for amateur oarsmen, artists and actors, and even the occasional aristocrat seeking the gratifications of outdoor life. As Renoir’s friend and biographer Georges Rivière later commented, ‘The infectious gaiety of this carefree crowd, boastful without arrogance and mocking without malice, attracted the painter, for whom the spectacle of popular enjoyments had always been of interest’ (G. Rivière, Renoir et ses amis, Paris, 1921, p. 184).
Renoir easily found a number of willing models along the banks of the Seine. In Le canotier de Bougival, he portrays a man identified by Françoise Daulte as ‘Monsieur de Lauradour’ (F. Daulte, Auguste Renoir: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, vol. 1, Figures, 1860–1890, Paris, 1971, cat. 305). Lauradour was a regular at La Grenouillère and Maison Fournaise, likely meeting Renoir at either establishment, and he appears in two other notable oils of the period – Déjeuner chez Fournaise (Déjeuner de canotiers) (The Art Institute of Chicago) and Le Déjeuner (Barnes Foundation) – both conceived in 1875. In these group scenes, Lauradour is immediately recognisable by his distinctive beard and the stylish trim of his meticulously combed hair. Evidently following the trends in sports fashion at the time, he wears a collarless boating shirt in all three paintings. Scholars have debated whether he was a doctor from an aristocratic family in Poitou, placing him in Renoir’s circle of ex-military friends. Though Lauradour’s biography and background remain speculative, Renoir must have been on friendly terms with his sitter as, during this period, he rarely painted portraits of people he did not know. Certainly, Laraudour appears content in the painter’s presence, pictured in a moment of calm respite in a day spent boating with friends.
Unlike Monet, who continued to paint landscapes throughout the 1870s, Renoir remained committed to portraying the people who embodied the defining elements of modern life. The apparently rapid execution of Le canotier de Bougival was typical of his Impressionist style in the late-1870s: He worked largely en plein air, quickly arresting in paint his initial impressions of colour and light. While the final details of a composition may be added back at his studio, Renoir preferred to respond on site directly and immediately to his subjects. With its marine blues and greens, Le canotier de Bougival calls to mind the Seine’s surface glimmering in the sunshine. The work is a testament to the pictorial possibilities that leisure could offer to a painter of modern life.