RENOIR: THE LUNCHEON OF THE BOATING PARTY
In
'The Boating Party Lunch', a group of Renoir's friends are enjoying that supreme
delight of the working man and woman, a day out. Renoir shows us interrelationships:
notice the young man intent upon the girl at the right chatting, while the girl
at the left is occupied with her puppy. But notice too the loneliness, however
relaxed, that can be part of anyone's experience at a lunch party. The man behind
the girl and her dog is lost in a world of his own, yet we cannot but believe
that his reverie is a happy one. The delightful debris of the meal, the charm
of the young people, the hazy brightness of the world outside the awning - all
communicates an earthly vision of paradise.
Renoir
is perhaps the best-loved of all the Impressionists for his subjects. Pretty
children, flowers, beautiful scenes, and above all lovely women, have instant
appeal and he communicated the joy he took in them with great directness. `Why
shouldn't art be pretty?', he said, `There are enough unpleasant things in the
world.' He was one of the great worshippers of the female form, and he said
`I never think I have finished a nude until I think I could pinch it.' One of
his sons was the celebrated film director Jean Renoir (1894-1979), who wrote
a lively and touching biography (Renoir, My Father) in 1962.