« previous picture | 1880s Renoir Paintings | next picture » |
From Philadelphia Museum of Art:
In many ways the composition of The Jardin d’Essai, showing a shaded tree-lined path, resembles the natural setting of In the Woods painted four years earlier. In the case of the Algerian painting, however, the trees are not part of a natural forest but are planted at regular intervals along a lane called an allée, a popular feature of French formal gardening. In the distance, several figures promenade along the allée, the details of each figure described by only a few short brushstrokes. The exotic date palms that tower over the walkway signal that this is a very different place from the streets of Paris or the French countryside. Despite the foreign location, Renoir utilizes techniques similar to those in his other paintings to capture the effects of light on different surfaces.