#bougival

Bain à la Grenouillère

Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, United States

Museo de Arte Currier, Manchester, New Hampshire

Alfred Sisley (British, 1839-1899), Bords de Seine à Bougival [Banks of the Seine at Bougival], 1874. Oil on canvas, 34.5 x 55 cm.

The open-air cafés of suburban Bougival, a town on the river Seine west of Paris, were popular recreation spots for city dwellers, including the Impressionists. Here, at one such café—its floor littered with cigarettes, burnt matches, and a small bouquet of flowers—an amateur boatman in a straw hat sweeps his stylish partner along in a waltz. The touch of their gloveless hands, their flushed cheeks and intimate proximity, suggest a sensuous subtext to this scene. The son of a dressmaker and a tailor, Renoir delighted in capturing intricate details of contemporary fashions, such as the woman’s red bonnet trimmed with purple fruits.

Pont de Bougival, Claude Monet 1869

Eisschollen auf der Seine bei Bougival, c.1867-68 von Claude Monet (Undatiert, Öl auf Leinwand)

Oil on canvas, 40.6 × 57.2 cm.