La Danse à Bougival

A couple turns in a waltz, his deep blue suit against her pale pink dress, and the whole café seems to move with them. Renoir painted it in 1883, and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts calls it one of its most beloved works.

The story behind the painting

Dance at Bougival is one of three dance paintings Renoir made for the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, all completed between January and April 1883, which Colin Bailey called among the most productive three months of Renoir's career. Bougival is a village about 15 km from Paris, painted also by Monet, Sisley and Morisot. Renoir himself first called the picture La danse à la campagne in 1883, and a story by Paul Lhote describing a very similar scene is set in Montmartre, so even the place is disputed.

What to look for

The two dancers are nearly life-size and fill the tall canvas, about 182 by 98 cm, while café goers chat around them. The colours are mostly pastel, with a more vivid hue in both hats. Renoir did very little sketching before painting this one. X-rays show the woman first wore a different hat and looked more like the dancer in Dance in the Country. Renoir later wrote that he had first painted his dancer with a white jacket and changed it to blue, and that he should have waited a month before making the change.

Meaning and intent

Who posed is still debated. The prevailing view names Suzanne Valadon, a former trapeze artist who became a painter herself, and Paul Lhote. Colin Bailey suggests the man may be Hippolyte-Alphonse Fournaise instead. Some historians think the woman blends Valadon and Aline Charigot, Renoir's future wife, which would tie the three dances together. The set shows the same dance in three parts of French society, and is described as Renoir's last foray into Impressionism, joining the bright palette of his friends with a more classical style learned in Italy and at the Louvre.

Legacy

The painting was shown in London soon after it was made, where The Academy regretted the absence of this great and audacious masterpiece because it arrived late. It travelled to New York in 1886 and Paris in 1892. In 1894 it went to Félix François Depeaux, who promised to give it to the Musée de Rouen but never did, needing money for a costly divorce. It then passed through his family until it was sold in 1937 to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.