Auguste Renoir - Summer landscape 1875

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From Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, Madrid:
In Woman with a Parasol in a Garden, Renoir’s language is wholly impressionistic: in a setting lacking a visible horizon, the flowers and shrubs are created with tiny dabs of colour, providing a constant interweaving of textures around the two small figures. The woman, whose parasol shades her from the sun, stands close to the man as he leans down, perhaps to pick a flower, hinting at an intimate relationship. Contrary to what one may think, this canvas was not painted in the countryside but in the garden of Renoir’s new studio in Montmartre. His friend George Rivière recalled: ‘As soon as Renoir entered the house, he was charmed by the view of this garden, which looked like a beautiful abandoned park.

Picasso revised the painting a great deal before settling on the final arrangement: he
first depicted Harlequin without ruffs at the neck or cuffs; a large glass stood on the
table where the match striker now appears; Harlequin's bicorne hat originally rested
behind his right hand; and the floral wallpaper was more extensive and not hidden by
the high banquette. - art-Picasso.com

While van Gogh waited for Paul Gauguin to join him in the Provençal
city of Arles in 1888, Vincent van Gogh painted five audaciously
decorative still lifes of sunflowers in simple earthenware jugs. At least
two of these canvases decorated Gauguin's bedroom when he reached
the city late in October, and the French painter came to admire
them greatly. - art-vanGogh.com

art-Renoir.com

Auguste Renoir 1841-1919