Impressionism: Moon Tang talks on Renoir's Two Sisters(On the Terrace), 1881.

Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Title: ‘Two Sisters’/ ‘On the Terrace’

Year: 1881

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 100.5 x 80 cm

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was an important French impressionist artist who was famous for painting women and warm family scenes. When the time he visited Chatou, where Renoir considered as ‘the most pleasant of all Paris suburbs’[1], in 1881, he painted one of his most popular paintings, ‘Two Sisters’. ‘Two Sisters’, or ‘On the Terrace’ which is the second title given by its first owner Paul Durand-Ruel, is an oil-on-canvas painting with the dimensions of 100.5cm x 80cm. It was painted at the terrace of Maison Fournaise, a restaurant in Chatou.

As shown in its names, the painting depicted two sisters, who were in fact not real sisters but two unrelated models for the painting, on the terrace of the restaurant with a basket of colourful wool. The elder sister, who was wearing a scarlet hat and dark blue dress, was sitting and looking left with her dark narrowed eyes, seems to be thinking of something, while the younger girl wearing white dress and blue hat with fresh flowers standing next to her was looking straight to the spectators with her bright and innocent blue eyes. For the background, there were vines and white flowers that just came into bloom, sparse trees and leaves in pale green. It showed that it was in the time of spring. In between the gaps of the branches, there were some boats along the river. Such lively scene with the two sisters, who were both in springtime of their life, gives spectators a feeling of tranquil, warm and joy.

As mentioned, ‘On the Terrace’ was painted by an impressionist during the time when impressionist style was popular. Thus, this painting did include some characteristics and techniques that are unique to impressionism as well.

First, the artwork was painted with visible brushstroke, which was very common in impressionist paintings. The artists before the rise of impressionism usually mixed the colours well when painting. This means that, for instance, they would paint the object with a pure blue colour when they were depicting something blue. If some other colours were essential, such as black for shadow, they would mix up two colours well. Later, since impressionists discovered that the colour of different parts of an object would, in fact, have tiny differences under light, they tried to present such differences they observed by painting the artworks with unmixed and visible brushstroke, which became one of the important characteristics of impressionist style. In ‘Two Sisters’, no matter it is the trees, river, flowers or the hats and dresses of the sisters, all brushstrokes can be clearly seen. Take the white dress of the younger girl as an example. Instead of depicting the dress with a large area of well-mixed white paint, Renoir seems to be painting the dress with his brush one stroke followed by another so as to ensure different colours of paints had little mixing. Thus, every brushstrokes, which are in white, blue and orange, on the dress are visible. The leaves behind the sisters as well, each stroke of the yellow and green paint can be seen clearly. Such kind of technique, in some way, enables the colour of objects depicted become more natural and vivid, and thus makes the artworks become more realistic. The only exceptions in the painting may be the faces of the two sisters, which are relatively smooth and delicate.

Second, the subject matter of the painting is similar to the common theme in impressionism. Different from the realist who mainly focused on political events or life of working class, impressionist artists, who were mostly from the bourgeois families, preferred painting the social life of middle class, scenes of leisure activities or landscapes. Obviously, ‘On the Terrace’ captured a scene of everyday life of the middle class people at that time. From the beautiful dressing of the sisters and the pose of the elder lady, which was sitting straight with her hands overlapping on her thigh elegantly, it is very likely that they were from the middle class. Also, the lively plants and some boats, which were partly blocked by the sparse trees, behind created a warm and leisure atmosphere. It is clear that it depicted the leisure time of middle-class ladies instead of something related to social or political events at that time.

Third, which is also the most important point, is the use of colour in ‘Two Sisters’. Previously, artists usually painted the objects with their expected colours instead of the real colour, including the tiny colour differences in every parts of the object that they should have observed. For example, since artists expected that shadows only appear as black or brown, only these two colours would be used when they needed to paint shadows. Later in 19^th Century, due to the scientific development, there was a big progress of colour use when compared impressionists to the realist artists. People at that time found that shadows are not just black or brown in colour, which was accepted as true over the past decades, it is, in fact, appeared as various colours under the effect of light. In other words, most of the ‘black’ colour that people saw is actually not the pure black but mixture of contrast colours, like blue and orange, red and green, and purple and yellow in a group. With such cognition, the impressionists started avoid using black paint, when it was a must to present colour of black, they would present it by mixing complementary colours. Such kind of technique was also presented in ‘Two Sisters’. For example, the shadow of the elder sister’s sleeves. The colour of the shadow may easily be identified as black if spectators just view the artwork briefly. Nevertheless, Renoir, in fact, mixed up orange and blue paint to present the shadow. So did that of the boats behind. Orange was used to show their shadows on the river, which was mainly painted in blue. Apart from presenting shadow, contrast colours were also used to make paintings livelier. As mentioned, impressionist discovered that colours are affected by lights. They thus used the complementary colours to make the objects much closer to the reality. For instance, the green pot behind the younger girl in the painting. Its contrast colour, red, was also applied on it, and this made the pot become more real and three-dimensional. Similar technique was also applied when Renoir was painting the dark blue dress of the elder sister. Some strokes of orange, which is the complementary colour of blue, were painted so as to present the colours to the spectators more vivid.

Through its visible brushstrokes, use of colour and objected depicted, ‘On the Terrace’ can be considered as a typical impressionist painting, which means that colour take a very important role in its constitution. Colours were not only used to present the effect of light as mentioned above, it was also used to attract the attention of spectators.

There are mainly three points of focus in ‘Two Sisters’, which spectators would easily pay attention to at first sight. The first one is the scarlet hat of the elder lady. Her hat in sharp red colour was painted thickly, and it formed a big contrast with her dress, which also covered quite a large area with solid dark blue paint in the artwork. This caught the attention of viewers easily. The second focus is the hat of the younger girl. There were beautiful and colourful flowers, which was exquisitely depicted, on her hat. Same as that of the elder sister, the younger girl’s hat was painted thickly with solid colours, and this enables the flowers to stand out from the smoothly-painted object around, for example the face and hair of the younger sister. Such solid and multicolored area formed a very attractive point in this painting as well. The third point is the basket of wool balls on the bottom left corner of the artwork. Similar to the techniques used for painting the hat of the little girl, balls of wools with various bright colours were painted with thick and visible brushstroke. It did catch the eyes of spectators at once.

For the background of the painting, although various colours were also applied, they were not concentrated enough and were painted thinly and unclearly. For instance, the branches and leaves on the top right hand corner of the painting. Unlike the three focus points mentioned or even the branches just behind the younger sister, those branches were painted so softly that they were nearly invisible. As a result, there was no clear focus in the background.

In short, the three attractive points in ‘Two Sisters’ were created with the help of colour use. These three focuses, which are the hat of elder sister, flowers on the younger girl’s hat, and the basket of wool balls, located in the middle, right and bottom left of the painting respectively. They formed a triangle that enables the subject matters of the painting, which are the two sisters, to stand out from the relatively messy and disperse background and catch the attention of viewers.

The painting ‘Two Sisters’ is now collected in the Art Institute of Chicago, and it is one of the most popular paintings there. The main reason why it is beloved by so many people may be the positive feeling it transmitted to spectators. ‘Two Sisters’ presents the beauty of spring and youth to us. The two sisters who were in springtime of their life, and the lively and colourful background created a fresh and hopeful atmosphere. Also, with the bright colours used and impressionist techniques applied, it enables spectators to find themselves in such a wonderful and harmonious environment. At the same time, through their expression, the elder sister gives viewers a kind of peaceful and harmonious feeling while the younger girl shows her innocent and pure to us. By appreciating the painting, it seems that spectators could escape from the stress of everyday life, be purified and become peaceful.

The artworks is so harmonious except one place, which is the basket of wool balls. A question come into most spectators’ mind after they discovered the balls of wools in the bottom left corner: ‘Since the painting was capturing a scene on the terrace, which is in the open air, the balls of wools, which usually appears in indoor setting, seems to be quite inharmonious to the whole scene. What is the reason for Renoir to have such setting?’ It has been suggested that it might be a response of Renoir to a critic. The critic compared the painting of Renoir to knitting and described one of his artworks as ‘a weak sketch seemingly executed in wool of different colours’.[2] In response, Renoir did paint a basket of wool balls in his artwork. The suggestion might be true, but there may also be some other reasons since, in fact, no one really knows how Renoir was thinking at that time.

In conclusion, there is no doubt that 'On the Terrace' by Renoir is an impressionist painting with joyful and leisure theme, visible brushstrokes, and well use of various bright colours. And it gives spectators a feeling of peaceful, warm and harmony.

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[1] The State Hermitage Museum of Russia, Auguste Renoir The Two Sisters(On the Terrace) From the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved from: https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/what-s-on/temp_exh/1999_2013/hm4_1_x/!ut/p/a1/

[2] The State Hermitage Museum of Russia, Auguste Renoir The Two Sisters(On the Terrace) From the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved from: https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/what-s-on/temp_exh/1999_2013/hm4_1_x/!ut/p/a1/

References:

Books

1. White, Barbara Ehrlich. Renoir, his life, art, and letters. New York: Abrams, 1984
2. Feist, Peter H. Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919: A Dream of Harmony. Koln: Taschen, 2000

Websites

1. Debra N. Mancoff. Paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Retrieved from: http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/artwork/paintings-by-pierre-auguste-renoir8.htm
2. Masaccio. Art Saturday: On the Terrace(Two Sisters) by Renoir. Retrieved from: http://my.firedoglake.com/masaccio/2010/04/10/art-saturday-on-the-terrace-two-sisters-by-renoir/
3. Stephen F. Condren(2010). Two Sisters(On the Terrace) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Retrieved from: http://stephencondren.blogspot.hk/2010/12/two-sisters-on-terrace-by-pierre.html
4. The Art Institute of Chicogo. Overview: Renoir’s Two Sisters(On the Terrace). Retrieved from: http://www.artic.edu/aic/resources/resource/81
5. The Art Institute of Chicogo. Summary: Renoir’s Two Sisters(On the Terrace). Retrieved from: http://www.artic.edu/aic/resources/resource/154
6. The State Hermitage Museum of Russia, Auguste Renoir The Two Sisters(On the Terrace) From the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved from: https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/what-s-on/temp_exh/1999_2013/hm4_1_x/!ut/p/a1/