Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Dance in the Country

Dance in the Country – laughter turned straight towards us

Dance in the Country 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 1979 64 and belongs to the collection of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Our oil painting on canvas Dance in the Country is painted by hand, in eight sizes from 50 x 100 to 100 x 200 cm.

The fan in the raised hand

The couple dance out of doors, on a terrace under trees. The woman, in a light flowered dress and a red bonnet, laughs and turns her face towards us with a fan raised in her right hand; her partner, in a dark suit and straw hat, is seen from behind. Behind them stands a table with a glass, and a discarded straw hat lies on the ground at the lower right. The canvas is the pendant to Dance in the City: same year, same size, opposite mood.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. In this subject the difference is easy to see: the small flowered pattern of the dress and the shadows under the trees are made of 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 a hand-painted painting reads differently under changing light than a flat printed surface.

In the room

The format is narrow and tall, so the painting is made for a wall where a wider subject has no room: the strip between two windows, the space beside a door, a kitchen or a dining room where the wall is high and narrow. The colour range is warm and sunny and it warms a room even where little daylight reaches. On a narrow wall 60 x 120 cm comes into its own, and in a tall space 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 dancer’s face and the fan in her raised hand merge together and the scene loses its centre of weight.

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 Country 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 on a terrace under trees, the woman in a flowered dress 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 100 cm to 100 x 200 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the dancer laughs and turns her face straight to the viewer – unlike the city scene, where she is turned away

See also:

• Dance in the City
• The Umbrellas
• The Swing (La Balançoire)