Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Beaulieu Landscape

Beaulieu Landscape – afternoon light between the trees

Beaulieu Landscape is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1893. The original measures 81 cm x 65.1 cm and is held by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. We paint our version by hand in oils on canvas, in eight landscape sizes, from 40 x 30 to 150 x 120 cm. Among them is 81 x 65 cm, which matches the measurement of the original, with 90 x 70 cm as the step above it.

A quiet moment in nature, with no figures

The scene is a colourful landscape and a quiet moment in nature. Renoir is best known for his paintings of people, but there is no figure on this canvas: it is carried by the countryside surrounded by trees and by the afternoon light falling on them. Light here does what a face or a figure would do elsewhere – it is the brightest place in the scene and the one the eye settles on first. The colour is open and unchecked, which is characteristic of this late period.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. The scene rests on afternoon light among the leaves, that is, on passages that have no edge, and that is exactly where a print fails: the screen cuts the passage into bands and stiffens the bright patches between the branches into areas with a hard margin. A hand-painted canvas leaves the passage soft as it is, and the stroke stays of differing density – thinner in shadow, denser where the light falls straight on.

In the room

The subject is horizontal, quiet and without narrative, so it works well where a painting should settle a room rather than draw attention to itself: in a living room above the sofa, in a dining room, a bedroom or an office. For an ordinary room we suggest 70 x 60 or 81 x 65 cm, the second being the measurement of the original. On a large wall 120 x 100 or 150 x 120 cm works, where the crowns open out and the scene comes to resemble a window. The smallest sizes, 40 x 30 and 50 x 40 cm, suit a hallway or a stairwell.

What you receive

We paint the canvas to order, by hand and for you alone, so every copy is made on its own; the canvas is usually painted and dried within three to four weeks. If you prefer, we will paint it in a size that is not on the list. Before despatch we send you a photograph of the finished canvas for your approval, and only then does the painting go out. Beaulieu Landscape arrives stretched on a wooden frame and ready to hang, wrapped in protective film and in rigid packaging, with no further stretching or finishing needed.

• Subject: country landscape with trees in afternoon light, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 40 x 30 cm to 150 x 120 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: a painter known for his people paints here a scene without a single figure – it is carried by the light between the trees

See also:

• Strawberries
• Les Grands Boulevards
• Le Pont Neuf