Two Girls Reading Renoir – 1000 pieces

Renoir was a great lover of both classical and impressionist painting. He was therefore able to work and interact with many styles and techniques. Indeed, during his artistic training, he studied at art school in Paris and was mentored by the famous landscape painter Charles Gleyre.

Under Charles Gleyre , he met other young painters such as Alfred Sisley, Frédéric Bazille and Claude Monet.

In fact, Renoir and Monet , despite having different tastes and education, shared a fraternal friendship.
In the summer of 1869, the two painters went together to Bougival, a picturesque village on the banks of the Seine, about twenty kilometers west of Paris.

The main natural attraction of the place was the islet of Croissy, which, located in the middle of the Seine, divided its course into two branches. Connected to the mainland by a bridge, it was equipped with a characteristic open-air restaurant, set up on a raft moored to the bank, and with several beach facilities surrounded by vegetation.

The entire complex was known by the joking name of Grenouillère, which literally means “frog pond” but which, in spoken French, also refers to a place where many girls eager to have fun gather.
Renoir and Monet then set up their easels next to each other and within a few hours each created their own Grenouillère. Monet ‘s painting is now housed at the Metropolitan Museum in New York , while Renoir ‘s is at the National Museum in Stockholm.

A parallel analysis of the two works allows us to better understand the different Impressionist approaches of each artist. Their perspective is virtually identical, but their focus on the scene is different.
While Monet emphasizes the overall image, distancing the central island in perspective, Renoir is more sensitive to the human presence, which, despite the hazy indeterminacy of small, rapid brushstrokes, nevertheless appears better defined than his friend’s. Monet’s figures, in fact, are drawn not unlike the plants and the rest of the surrounding nature, with which they appear in perfect balance.
Monet’s attention, therefore, always remains extremely synthetic.
Where both artists gave their best, however, in the representation of the movement of the water and the thousand reflections that color it, Monet uses a few colors applied in horizontal brushstrokes, identifying the areas of light and shadow with abrupt chromatic changes, such as around the boats and the central islet or near the opposite shore.