Book Club - Renoir

And thus began my true appreciation of the Impressionist movement. Wonderful book about Renoir. ( )

È il 1880 a Parigi e Pierre-Auguste Renoir, i pennelli nella mano destra e l’astuccio ereditato da Claude Monet nella sinistra, è appena giunto sulla terrazza della Maison Fournaise, una locanda amata dagli artisti dove si può mangiare, dormire o affittare una barca.
Alphonsine Fournaise, la figlia del padrone della locanda, l’ha condotto fin lì per mostrargli un tratto della Senna dove le due rive offrono un paesaggio incomparabile allo sguardo di un pittore.
La blusa a righe e il costume da bagno aderente sulle sue curve procaci, Alphonsine allarga le braccia davanti alla meraviglia che si spalanca non appena scosta la tenda a righe grigie e rosso corallo.
Le canoe affiancate lungo la riva spiccano sul verde scuro dell’acqua. Sulla riva orientale una locanda, con i muri bianchi e il tetto di tegole rosse, è illuminata dal sole pomeridiano. Più a valle, un cantiere si allunga sul fiume circondato di barche, e qua e là si vedono case di contadini accoccolate accanto ai loro orti.
In che modo Renoir potrebbe ritrarre quel magnifico luogo in cui la città incontra la campagna? Dipingendo alla maniera degli impressionisti una

Sensuous, full of color, food, wine, art, and la vie moderne. Renoir paints his masterpiece, with the background of most of his models. A slice of French life, teeming with voluptuous descriptions of his use of color and light in impressionist painting. ( )

Luncheon of the Boating Party – Susan Vreeland
4 stars

“I regret I must interrupt your gastronomic delight in order to finish what we came for,” Auguste said.

Imagine a large group of animated people with a wide variety of interests and backgrounds. They are all enjoying a gourmet lunch, good wine and the intersection of four or five different simultaneous conversations. Now ask them to freeze in place for several hours while the light lasts. This is the task of Auguste Renoir as he painted his Luncheon of the Boating Party. Vreeland’s book gives names, personality and personal histories to each of the faces in the Renoir’s masterpiece. Renoir captures la vie moderne in one moment in time. Vreeland captures this modern life with all of its social complexity. She also describes the seemingly insurmountable difficulties involved in the creation of Renoir’s painting. I feel as if I were privileged to be the proverbial fly on the wall anonymously watching all of the action. (Although, since it is Renoir, I’d have to be something prettier, a butterfly or a ladybug.)

I began this as an audio book, but I did not like the reader at all. It worked much better to read it. At first I had difficulty keeping track of the characters. I know the painters and writers of this time period by their last names. When Vreeland used only first names, I was confused. It helped a great deal to open the website for the book. It has some important background information, thumbnails of all the paintings mentioned in the text, and each character is identified with a close-up from the painting.

As soon as I finished the book, I wanted to get a flight to Washington D.C. and head straight to the Phillips Gallery to see the painting.
( )