Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Dance at Bougival

Dance at Bougival – a face turned away from the partner

Dance at Bougival is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1883. The original measures 181.9 x 98.1 cm, is recorded under inventory number 37.375 and belongs to the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Our art reproduction Dance at Bougival is a hand-painted painting in oil on canvas, in eight sizes from 50 x 90 to 100 x 190 cm.

A straw hat, a red cap, and a floor strewn with cigarette ends

The couple dance out of doors, among tables under the trees. The woman, in a white dress and a red bonnet, holds her face down and turned away from her partner; the man, in a straw hat and dark blue suit, leans towards her, the brim hiding almost all of his face. Behind them guests sit with their glasses, and on the ground at the dancers’ feet lie spent matches and a small bunch of flowers.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. In this subject the difference is easy to see: the white dress and the red bonnet carry the whole canvas, and both are built from individual strokes of oil colour laid side by side with a brush. The paint keeps the thickness of the load and the track of the bristles, which printed paper cannot imitate, so an oil painting on canvas reads differently under changing light than a flat printed surface does.

In the room

The format is tall and upright and the scene is lively and warm, so the painting works well where movement is already part of the room: a dining room, a hospitality space, or beside a staircase where it can be seen from a distance. Because the dancers are large in relation to the canvas, from close to the scene reads as a crop, and only a few steps back does it close up with the tables behind them. For a smaller wall 60 x 110 cm is enough, for an open space we suggest 90 x 170 cm, and on a tall wall 100 x 190 cm works. Between them stand 70 x 130 and 80 x 150 cm. Under 50 x 90 cm both faces merge into the background.

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. Dance at Bougival 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: dancing couple outdoors among tables under trees, the woman in white with a red cap, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 50 x 90 cm to 100 x 190 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the dancer turns her face down and away from her partner – the scene is not a meeting of looks but an avoidance

See also:

• Dance in the Country
• Dance in the City
• The Umbrellas