Two Sisters or On the Terrace by Pierre-Auguste Renoir depicts the upper terrace of the Maison Fournaise, a family restaurant located on an island in the Seine in Chatou, the western suburb of Paris. The painting shows a young woman and her younger girl seated outdoors with a small basket containing balls of wool. In the background over the railings of the terrace, are flowering plants and vines. Beyond is the River Seine with its boats and also some buildings in the top left.
Renoir painted this delightful scene as a homage to springtime in 188. He or his art dealer called it “Two Sisters”. The first owner of the painting used its alternative title, “On the Terrace.” Jeanne Darlot (1863—1914), a future actress who was 18 years old when she posed for the elder sister. The identity of who represented the younger sister is not known as they were not real sisters. Before working on Two Sisters, Renoir worked in this particular location on another well-known painting, Luncheon of the Boating Party.
Maison Fournaise
The Maison Fournaise is today a restaurant and museum located on Impressionist Island on the Seine in Chatou, west of Paris. In 1857, Alphonse Fournaise bought land in Chatou to open a boat rental, restaurant, and small hotel for the new tourist trade.
The family restaurant was a favorite of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He painted many scenes at the restaurant as well as several portraits of Fournaise family members and many landscapes of the surrounding area. In 1880, Renoir wrote to a friend:
“My painting detains me in Chatou. Be kind enough to come and have lunch with me.
You won’t regret your trip; this is the loveliest place in the surroundings of Paris.”
The Maison Fournaise museum’s collection is focused on the history of the house and the golden age of the banks of the Seine. It also holds exhibitions around contemporary artistic movements from the Impressionist era.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, commonly known as Auguste Renoir, was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. Renoir’s paintings are notable for their vibrant light and saturated color, most often focusing on people in intimate and candid compositions. In characteristic Impressionist style, Renoir suggested the details of a scene through freely brushed touches of color, so that his figures softly fuse with their surroundings.
At the age of 51, Renoir developed rheumatoid arthritis which in his last twenty years of his life severely limited his mobility. He developed progressive deformities in his hands and ankylosis of his right shoulder, requiring him to change his painting technique. Renoir remained positive and passionate about his art and did not let his condition affect his painting or diminish the beauty that he saw around him. In the advanced stages of his arthritis, he required an assistant to place his paintbrush in his hand. His hands were also wrapped with bandages to prevent skin irritation. Renoir applied a variety of effective coping strategies and used his ingenuity to come up with different ways to continue painting even as his arthritis weakened him.
Renoir was a prolific artist who created several thousand paintings. The single most extensive collection of his works, about 181 paintings, are part of the Barnes Foundation, in Philadelphia.
The Theater Box
- Title: Two Sisters (On the Terrace)
- Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Date: 1881
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: Height: 1,005 mm (39.56 ″); Width: 810 mm (31.88 ″)
- Museum: Art Institute of Chicago
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Name: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Born: 1841 – Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France
- Died: 1919 (aged 78) – Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France
- Nationality: French
- Movement: Impressionism
- Famous Paintings:
- Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette
- Dance at Bougival
- The Large Bathers
- The Theater Box
- Collette’s House in Cagnes
- Luncheon of the Boating Party
- In Summer
- Country Dance
- Two Sisters
- Portrait of Misia Godebska-Sert
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir
A Tour of Art Institute of Chicago
- Art Institute of Chicago
- “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” by Georges Seurat
- “Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper
- “Paris Street, Rainy Day” by Gustave Caillebotte
- “American Gothic” by Grant Wood
- “The Child’s Bath” by Mary Cassatt
- “Houses of Parliament, London” by Claude Monet
- Bathers by Paul Cézanne
- “Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare” by Claude Monet
- “Saint Martin and the Beggar” by El Greco
- Two Sisters or On the Terrace by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Stacks of Wheat (End of Day, Autumn) by Claude Monet
- Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer) by Claude Monet
- “At the Moulin Rouge” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
- Masterpieces of the Art Institute of Chicago
A Tour of Chicago’s Museums
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Chicago History Museum
- Field Museum of Natural History
- Museum of Science and Industry
- Driehaus Museum
Reflections
- What makes this painting immediately recognizable as a Renoir?
- Did you know that Renoir suffered a great deal from rheumatoid arthritis during the last 20 years of his life?
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“The pain passes, but the beauty remains.”
– Pierre-Auguste Renoir
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Photo Credit 1) Pierre-Auguste Renoir [Public domain]