Post by Boomer Chick on Jul 5, 2004 12:49:27 GMT -5
Yes, this Renoir painting inspired me to set up a French cafe board. In October of 2003 I viewed this original work at the Denver Art Museum. Although I had seen many prints, read about Impressionism and Renoir, framed Renoir prints for my home, nothing could compare to the stunning beauty of that canvas (51 1/4 x 69 1/2 inches) that Renoir literally transformed into a group portraiture of uncompromised beauty and richness.
Who are these lucky, convivial people? A mixed group, the men outnumber the women almost two to one, although it's the women who dominate the painting. Nobody at this party seems boring or bored and nothing signals the presence under foot of restive, whining children. Improbably, wishfully, everyone on the balcony (at least everyone whose face is visible) is young and good-looking. In an important sense, they are just fourteen people out for the day. At the same time, their highly individualized faces are a reminder of Renoir's skill and success as a portrait painter, and in fact their identities are known.
The model for the bare-armed man straddling his chair in the foreground on the right, a cigarette pinched between his thumb and forefinger, is traditionally identified as the painter Gustave Caillebotte(1845-94). A yachtsman, and inheritedly wealthy, Caillebotte underwrote the impressionists' exhibitions, bought many of their works, and bequethed his considerable impressionist collection to the Musee du Luxembourg. He was also a close friend of Renoir's and the godfather to his oldest son, Pierre.
Across the table from Caillebotte sits a pretty young woman with a dog. The model was Aline Charigot (1859-1915), a seamstres from Essoyes in the Champagne region, southeast of Paris. Renior met her around 1880 and a decade later they married. She bore him three sons. She eventually became quite stout.
Behind Aline, leaning against the railing stands Alphonse Fournaise (1848-1910), son of the proprietor of the Maison Fournaise at Chatou, where the lunch party takes place. Like Caillebotte, he is dressed for rowing in a tight tank top and a straw hat.
Further along the railing, a sweet-faced young woman talks to a man in a brown bowler hat. She is Alphonsine Fournaise
(1846-1937), daughter of the restauranteur and sister to Alphonse.
The model for the man, his back to the viewer, was Baron Raoul Barbier, Renoir's friend. Barbier, the son of the French ambassador to Constantinople, was a cavalry officer. He held the position of mayor of Saigon during the first years of the Indochina French occupation. The baron liked women and haunted the backstages of the Montmartre's theaters, including the Folies-Bergere. A regular patron at the rowdy riverside bathing establishment and restaurant known as La Grenouillere, located at Bougival, near Chatou, he first me Renoir at La Maison Fournaise.
The light haired woman in the white and blue toque is actress Angele. A man bends over her attentively, his arms encompassing her and the figure of Caillebotte with a gesture of relaxed familiarity. This man hugging her, looks like Maggiolo, an Italian journalist who worked for the weekly satirical magazine Le Triboulet, which published commentaries on theater and cabaret performers. This may explain why Renoir put them together in this way.
Another well-known actress, Ellen Andree, is seated at the neighboring table, a glass raised to her lips. Like many of the other sitters in this painting, she posed more than once for Renoir, as well as for other impressionist painters.
The last group, standing at the right rear of the canvas, includes a beared man seen in profile, identified as Eugene-Pierre Lestrinquez, an offical in the Ministry of the Interior, who appeared in other paintings by Renoir. Lestrinquez dabbled in the occult and practiced hypnosis, according to Jean Renoir's account of the Lestrinquez household, which he knew well as a child. The man to the right in a straw hat and pince-nez is Paul Lhote. He and Lestringuez were close friends of Renoir and were witnesses at his marriage to Aline. In 1881, they accompanied the artist during his visit to Algeria.
Clapping her hands over her ears to shut out either the two men's flirtatious comments or the sound of a starting pistol for a boat race, or adjusting her hat, is the famous Comedie-Francaise actress Jeanne Samary. She may have met Renoir at the Carpentier's salon and appears in other paintings by him. At the time of the Luncheon of the Boating Partyshe had recently become engaged. The hint of a top hat at the extreme right edge of the painting and the hand around her waist may indicate the presence of her fiance.
The two men conversing in the far left corner of the balcony offer a study in contrasts. The bearded figure in the top hat is Charles Ephrussi (1849-1905), a Russian-born art collector and writer who came to Paris in 1871. Editor of the Gazette des beaux-arts. Ephrussi became the periodical's owner in 1885. Between 1879 and 1881 he bought a significant number of paintings by Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, and three by Renoir. Through Ephrussi, Renoir received important portrait commissions from the Cahen d'Anvers family.
Jules Laforgue (1860-87), a young French poet and journalist wrote for publisher Georges Charpentier, one of Renoir's most important patrons. Ephrussi influenced Laforgue, introducing him to modern art and helping him to become an important critic. Laforgue was the model for the man in a brown jacket and cap, holding a cigarette and conversing with Ephrussi.