Renoir: Bal du Moulin de la Galette

Public Domain Photo: Bal du Moulin de la Galette (1876), oil on canvas painting of dimensions 131 cm x 175 cm (52 in x 69 in) currently housed at Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Bal du Moulin de la Galette (commonly referred to as ‘Le Moulin de la Galette’ or ‘Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette’) by the acclaimed French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), is considered one of the most celebrated masterpieces of Impressionism.

In this oil painting created in 1876, Renoir depicts a typical impressionist scene of a social gathering on a Sunday afternoon at Moulin de la Galette in Montmartre district of Paris, where working class people, dressed up in their best outfits, loved to celebrate the evenings by eating galettes, drinking, dancing, and meeting other Parisians. Also, Renoir recreated the late 19th century real Parisian life in Bal du Moulin de la Galette, though his style is typically Impressionist, but rich in color, form, and typical fluidity of his brushstrokes.

Bal du Moulin de la Galette came in the collection of Musée du Luxembourg in Paris in 1896, and in 1929 it was transferred to the Musée du Louvre, and in 1986 it was transferred to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, where it is still located.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir also created a SMALLER VERSION (78 cm x 114 cm) of “Bal du Moulin de la Galette” with the same title and it is in private collection. It was earlier in the collection of American millionaire and U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, John Hay Whitney. After his death, his widow Betsey Roosevelt Whitney (an American philanthropist and the ex-wife of James Roosevelt) sold the painting for US$78,100,000 at an auction Sotheby's (New York City) to the Japanese business tycoon Ryoei Saito (Saito Ryoei) in May 1990.

In 1991 Saito created an international outcry by declaring that he wished to cremate the painting (which is the fifth most expensive painting ever sold after adjusting for dollar value as per consumer price index), with him when he would be dead, along with Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Portrait of Dr. Gachet’, which also Saito purchased for a record price of US$82.5 million.

Ryoei Saito’s desire to cremate Bal du Moulin de la Galette could not be fulfilled as his bankers, who held the painting as collateral security against his loans, sold the painting through Sotheby's to an unknown buyer, when Saito and his business empire went broke.

Now, though the painting’s ownership and location are uncertain, it is believed to be owned by a Swiss art collector.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Judgement of Paris (Urteil des Paris)

PD Photo: Judgement of Paris (Urteil des Paris) painted around 1908-1910 by French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), oil on canvas, dimensions 20 cm x 61 cm, located at Phillips Collection, Washington (D.C.)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Nude (painting)

PD Image: Nude (painting, 1910) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, as the painting looked before restoration.

PD Image: Nude (painting, 1910) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), oil on canvas painting after restoration.

Nude, oil on canvas painting by French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), painted in 1910, was stolen in 1996 by a thief. It was recovered in bad condition, requiring a year of restoration. The painting is now located in the National Museum of Serbia. According to some reports, its estimated worth is 10 million Euros.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Junge Frau beim Frisieren

PD Image: Junge Frau beim Frisieren (Young woman's hair), a 1909 oil on canvas painting by French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), dimensions 49.5 cm x 44 cm, private collection.

After the Bath (1910) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Image: After the Bath (1910), oil on canvas painting by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir currently located at Barnes Foundation, Lower Merion Township, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

The Barnes Foundation, an educational art institution founded in 1922 by Albert C. Barnes, has one of the largest collections of 181 works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The foundation possesses more than 2500 art objects, including 800 paintings estimated to be worth about $25 billion. Apart from Renoir, it has 69 works by Paul Cézanne, and 59 by Henri Matisse, and works by many other masters including Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Francisco Goya, Vincent Van Gogh, Jean Hugo Giorgio de Chirico, El Greco, Edouard Manet, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Maurice Utrillo, Maurice Prendergast, and numerous African artworks, ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman art, American and European decorative arts and metal works.

Diana the Huntress by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Image: Diana the Huntress (1867), oil on canvas painting by French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), dimensions 197 cm x 132 cm, currently located at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (D.C.)

Diana the Huntress is a study of the female figure and an expression of Renoir's heightened personal response to female sensuality. This kind of style was the mainstay of the academic tradition. The model in the painting is Lise Tréhot, Renoir's mistress and inspiration for a number of his paintings. As is found in Renoir's early work, there is evidence of the influence of the realist painter Gustave Courbet. Though the subject is mythological, the painting is a naturalistic studio work, in which the figure was carefully observed, modeled and superimposed on a contrived landscape. Renoir just added a bow, a dead animal, and the deerskin to transform Lise into Diana, the mythological goddess of hunting. Also, Renoir used a palette knife to apply his pigments, a favorite technique of Courbet.