Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Dance in the City

Dance in the City – two figures nearly life size on a narrow canvas

Dance in the City is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1883. The original measures 180.0 x 90.0 cm, is recorded under inventory number RF 1978 13 and belongs to the collection of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Our hand-painted painting Dance in the City is made in oil on canvas, in eight sizes from 50 x 100 to 100 x 200 cm.

The satin dress and the long gloves

The dancing couple stands on a narrow upright canvas at almost life size. The woman, in a pale satin gown with a long train and long gloves, is turned away from us with her head inclined towards her shoulder; her partner wears black evening dress. Behind them are palm fronds and greenery. Everything gathers around the light on the silk, and that light carries the whole work.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. In this subject the difference is easy to see: the pale satin is made of long, soft strokes of oil colour, laid side by side with a brush, which change tone according to where the light falls. 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 narrow and tall, which makes it one of the few subjects that rescues a wall where a wider painting has no room: the wall between two windows, the narrow strip beside a door, the end of a hallway, or a staircase where the eye travels upward. Because the dancers are nearly life size, the scene works like an opening in the wall rather than an ornament, so it is worth hanging low enough that the feet do not sit above eye level. For a smaller wall 60 x 120 cm is enough, for a tall space we suggest 80 x 160 cm, and on a really tall wall 100 x 200 cm works, with 90 x 175 cm as the step below. Under 50 x 100 cm the figures lose their life size and the scene becomes a mere vignette.

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 in the City 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 in a city hall, the woman in a pale satin dress with long gloves, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 50 x 100 cm to 100 x 200 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the narrow upright canvas brings the dancers close to life size, so the painting acts more like an opening in the wall than a scene

See also:

• The Umbrellas
• La Loge (The Theatre Box)
• The Swing (La Balançoire)