La Promenade

A young man reaches back for a young woman's hand and leads her down a leafy path. Renoir painted the moment in 1870, just before war changed everything.

The story behind the painting

La Promenade is an early Impressionist oil painting that Pierre-Auguste Renoir made in 1870. In 1869 he had painted alongside Claude Monet at La Grenouillère, and by 1870 he was living in Louveciennes with his mother. At the time the eighteenth-century Rococo style was back in fashion, and Renoir embraced it. That same summer, on 19 July 1870, France declared war on Germany; Renoir was conscripted and served four months in the cavalry, though he never saw combat. Wikidata records the canvas as 81.3 by 64.8 centimetres, and today it belongs to the J. Paul Getty Museum.

What to look for

Follow the two figures along the path. A young man in a distinctive boater hat, possibly a canotier or boatman, holds the hand of a young woman as they move between bushes, perhaps on the banks of the Seine. Notice how the light breaks through the leaves and falls in patches on her pale dress. The palette is bright and high-key, a sign of Monet's influence, and the touch is light and delicate. Most of all, see how the couple belongs to the woodland rather than standing in front of it, their forms woven into the dappled green.

Meaning and intent

The image of lovers wandering through the woods is a Rococo theme, recalling Jean-Antoine Watteau's fêtes galantes and the lightness of Jean-Honoré Fragonard, as John House observed. Henri Loyrette wrote that the painting finally achieved what Renoir had long sought: the integration of the figure in a landscape. Who modelled for it is uncertain. The woman is generally believed to be Lise Tréhot, Renoir's favourite model, though earlier writers named Alfred Sisley and a woman called Rapha. Even the title is not Renoir's: owners first called it La Promenade when selling it in 1898.

Legacy

Renoir returned to Rococo themes in later works such as The Lovers of 1875 and Confidences of 1878. In 1883 he drew Couple on a Hillside for the review La Vie Moderne, a reworking of this painting with new angles. The picture passed through many hands, including Paul Durand-Ruel, Paul Cassirer and Paul Rosenberg, before John Walsh, then director of the Getty, helped bring it to the museum in 1989. Renoir himself disliked sentimental titles, saying his joy lay in painting rather than in a preconceived subject. The couple on the path still walk on, unnamed and unhurried.

Le saviez-vous ?

Painted in 1870; J. Paul Getty Museum, acquired 1989 (Wikipedia).
The title La Promenade was given by owners in 1898; the original title is unknown (Wikipedia).
The woman is generally believed to be Lise Tréhot (Wikipedia).
Canvas 81.3 x 64.8 cm (Wikidata).

Wikipedia · Wikidata