Impressionism · 1880-1881
Luncheon of the Boating Party
Friends linger over lunch on a balcony above the Seine. Renoir turned a social afternoon into a carefully revised monument to modern leisure.
- Made
- 1880-1881
- Style
- Impressionism
- Collection
- The Phillips Collection, Washington
From museum to game table
The in-game crop
The card adds paint spaces, rewards and a frame. This crop shows the artwork area used during play, without the card rails.
The short history
What happened here?
The setting is the Maison Fournaise at Chatou, a restaurant popular with boaters. Renoir used friends, models and future wife Aline Charigot for the large group.
The relaxed scene took months of planning and revision. Technical study shows that Renoir moved figures and added the striped awning after painting more of the open landscape.
Collector Duncan Phillips bought the painting in 1923. It became the anchor of his young museum and remains the best-known work in the Phillips Collection.
Look closer
Three details worth finding
- 1Aline Charigot playing with a small dog
- 2Gustave Caillebotte seated backward on a chair
- 3Red accents moving across hats, fruit and clothing
Sources
Read further
Museum records come first. Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons provide useful public background and image records.