Oarsmen At Chatou - By Pierre-Auguste Renoir Editorial Photo

In this canvas, Oarsmen at Chatou, Renoir has returned to one of his favorite spots along the Seine to explore again the beauties of the glinting water. True to Impressionist practice, the artist focuses on the glorious spectrum of outdoor light as it floods the landscape. With a technique that is at once dashing and rigorously controlled, he recomposes in paint his own soft vision of nature's radiance. Yet he relrrajns sensitive also to the wealth of contrasting textures that greet his eye, and adjusts his brushwork to evoke not only the color but the "feel" of grass or water or windy, cloud-filled sky. That he accomplished this double task without sacrifice of internal consistency of technique, or loss of an overall sense of artistic personality, shows how completely Renoir assimilated the Impressionist method to his own purposes. Almost casually he takes in the sweep of the landscape and the happy fellowship of the group of four sketched figures in the lower left of the composition.