Shop art print and framed art The Skiff by Auguste Renoir

In a Boat on the Seine (or La yole) is an oil on canvas (71x92 cm) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, dated 1875 and now in the National Gallery in London. The yole was a type of boat that sailed on the Seine near Asnières on summer days, probably in Chatou, not far from Paris. A railway bridge can be seen on the right, which is probably the one also seen in Seurat's Baigneuses d'Asnières. The boat is at the centre of the canvas, with two elegantly dressed middle-class women on board, rowing and reading. The blue of the water dominates, against which the orange boats stand out. The Seine and the gypsies was one of the artist's favourite themes, often the subject of his plein air works. The real subject of the painting is in fact the water and its reflections, as well as the light and atmosphere that are characteristic of the precise moment of the painting. Working en plein air had been made possible in the middle of the century by the invention of oil paint tubes. The artist probably brought only eight colours with him, and these are the only ones to be found on the canvas, including white: cobalt blue, lacquer red, vermilion, chrome orange, chrome yellow, lemon yellow, emerald green and lead white. These are intense colours, most of them newly synthesised, which the artist often did not even mix, drawing them straight from the tube: applying the theories of the chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul, the artist sought to combine pure, complementary colours to achieve maximum brilliance and [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the modern period. It belongs to the impressionism style.

 

« The Skiff » is kept at National Gallery, London, United Kingdom.

 

Find the full description of The Skiff by Auguste Renoir on Wikipedia.