Figures on the Beach

Auguste Renoir

1890 · Oil on canvas · Robert Lehman Collection

Probably painted in 1890 on the Cote d’Azur in southern France, this sun-filled painting shows two female figures at the beach. The seated figure is shown in profile, her right hand holding a parasol on the sand. She exchanges a look with the standing figure to her right who holds a basket at her side. The women are joined by a small white dog, and before the water stands a young boy dressed in blue, seemingly throwing an object into the ocean. The standing figure serves as a vertical force which connects the horizontally banded foreground, water, and sky. The women appear carefree and neither at work nor in the presence of men. Painted later in Renoir’s career, a period at which point the artist expressed skepticism of industrialism and machines, this quiet seascape pays homage to the resplendent beauty of what is ordinary and simple.

Artist

Auguste Renoir

Date

1890

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975