Description
NARRATOR: Here is one of the most famous and best loved paintings in the whole museum. It is Dance at Bougival, painted in 1883 by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
This is one of Renoir’s most ambitious works and, for many people, an image of pure escape. The painting captures a sunny afternoon at Bougival, near Paris. George Shackelford is chair of the Department of the Art of Europe here at the MFA:
GEORGE SHACKELFORD: Bougival… was one of the towns along the Sienne…where Parisians typically went to play… And they went there above all in the summertime… It’s a place of great social interaction, and it is not just a place…for people of…great wealth.
NARRATOR: At the center a couple is dancing. We can sense their whirling motion in the swirl of the woman’s skirts and the blurring of the foliage and figures in the background.
Despite the movement of the dancing figures, Renoir focuses our attention primarily on the intriguing interplay of the two profiles. The woman’s head is framed in a bright red hat, and she looks away slightly, while her partner concentrates intently on her face. We feel he knows how he wants the day to end, while she hasn’t quite made up her mind. Again, here’s George Shackelford:
GEORGE SHACKELFORD: So all in all, it’s a kind of romantic, very jolly, gay… ambience that Renoir places his figures in. He makes them animated, he makes them talk to each other. They’re interested in each other, they’re looking at each other.
NARRATOR: Dance at Bougival is very much a painting of modern life in late 19th-century France. But its timeless image of romance also conveys a sense of grasping the moment, a reminder that life is short and we should make the most of it.
Details
- Work Date:
- 1883
- Location:
- Sidney and Esther Rabb Gallery (Gallery 255)
- Dimensions:
- 181.9 x 98.1 cm. (71 5/8 x 38 5/8 in.)
- Medium:
- Oil on canvas
- Credit Line:
- Picture Fund