Year 1876 Artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir Created 1876 Periods Impressionism, Modern art | Medium Oil on canvas Location Musée d'Orsay Genre History painting Media Canvas, Paint, Oil paint | |
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Dimensions 92 cm × 73 cm (36.2 in × 28.7 in) Similar Pierre-Auguste Renoir artwork, Canvas, Impressionist artwork | ||
The Swing (French: La balançoire) is an oil on canvas painting by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir who was a leading exponent of the Impressionist style. The painting was executed in 1876. The painting measures 92 x 73 centimetres and is in the Musée d’Orsay. Renoir executed the painting in what are now the Musée de Montmartre gardens. He had rented a cottage in the gardens so that he be could closer to the Moulin de la Galette where he was engaged in painting Bal du moulin de la Galette.
Description
Renoir's people seem to stand on a forest floor of blossoms. The girl on the swing could be fifteen, her pink dress with a hat on head increases the charm of painting. The quivering light is rendered by the patches of pale colour, particularly on the clothing and the ground. This particularly annoyed the critics when the painting was shown at the Impressionist exhibition of 1877.
The muyer was the model called Jeanne, a favourite of Renoir's who nevertheless could not be persuaded to model for Bal. It was her sister Estelle who modelled the girl in the pink and blue striped dress in that painting. The two men are Renoir's brother Edmond and a painter friend Norbert Goeneutte (also appearing in Bal).