La Balançoire

The Swing (La Balançoire) is an oil on canvas that Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted in the summer of 1876 in the gardens of what is now the Musée de Montmartre, where he had rented a small cottage close to the Moulin de la Galette. While he was also working on his famous Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, Renoir made this scene, whose subject seems simple: a young woman, Jeanne Samary, a regular model of the artist and a working woman from Montmartre, stands on a swing hung from a tree, her thoughts seemingly elsewhere, while a man seen from behind and another leaning against the trunk try to win her attention. A neighbourhood girl in everyday dress watches from below. Renoir later told his friend Georges Rivière that the child had been looking at him as he worked, and he included her in the painting without her knowledge. In the background, a small group chats among the foliage.

The most striking feature is the treatment of light. Loose, short brushstrokes, often reduced to patches of colour, suggest sunlight filtering through leaves onto the clothing and the ground, strewn with pink, white and lavender blossoms. This dissolving of outlines, which prioritised impression over precision, is what angered some critics at the 1877 Impressionist exhibition, one of whom likened the dots to grease spots.

The picture also draws on eighteenth-century art. Renoir admired Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard, and the leisurely, flirtatious and wistful mood of the park recalls the fêtes galantes. At the same time, Jeanne's princess-line dress and the informal clothing of the men place the scene firmly in the present. Renoir also avoided a clear narrative: the reason for the woman's gesture and her relationship to the men are never explained, leaving the viewer with a deliberate ambiguity.

The painting was bought in 1877 by Gustave Caillebotte, who also acquired Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, and it later entered the Musée d'Orsay. Today it stands as a representative image of Impressionism's interest in modern leisure.

Painter

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Date

1876

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

92 × 73 cm

Museum

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Genre

genre art

Depicts

swing, dress, girl, woman, man

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