Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919), View of Bougival, 1873. Oil on canvas, 19 1/2 × 22 1/2 in. (49.53 × 57.15 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of Jane Bradley Pettit. M2001.161. Photo: Cleber Bonato.
View of Bougival epitomizes the characteristics that would come to define Pierre Auguste Renoir’s special contributions to the Impressionist movement. The blue lavenders of the foreground shadows, the rich salmons accented on the staircase, and the ochre oranges of the skiffs along the shore would become favored colors in Renoir’s work. The ambiguous flirtation of the man and the woman, who seem to be deciding between taking a boat or a stroll, presages many of Renoir’s later boating scenes of couples tentatively moving towards romance.
Website label, 2006. Written by Laurie Winters, Curator of Earlier European Art.
