Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Girls at the Piano

Girls at the Piano – a finger pointing into the open score

Girls at the Piano is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1892. The original measures 116.0 x 90.0 cm, is recorded under inventory number RF 755 and belongs to the collection of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Our oil painting on canvas Girls at the Piano is painted by hand, in eight sizes from 60 x 80 to 130 x 170 cm.

Two heads over the same sheet

A fair-haired girl in a white dress sits at an upright piano with her hands on the keys; a second girl, with auburn hair and in a pink-red dress, leans over her shoulder and points a finger at the open score. A green curtain falls behind them, a vase of flowers stands on the piano, and a gilt candle-holder is fixed to its front. The scene is domestic and quiet; the colours are soft and the outlines are nowhere sharp.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. In this work the difference is easy to see: the white dress and the pink fabric are built from soft, overlapping 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 does.

In the room

The subject is warm and quiet, in pink, green and white tones, without hard contrasts, so it works well where a painting must not take over the room: in a living room, a bedroom, or a room where music is played or listened to. The scene is closed in on itself – the two figures are turned towards each other and towards the score – and for that reason it does not call for attention, but holds it calmly once it has it. For a smaller wall 70 x 90 cm is enough, above a larger piece of furniture we suggest 100 x 130 cm, and on a large wall 130 x 170 cm works. Below 60 x 80 cm the finger on the score and the sheet itself stop being distinguishable, and with them goes the thing that holds the scene together.

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. Girls at the Piano 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: two young women at a piano, one pointing into the open score, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 60 x 80 cm to 130 x 170 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: both figures are looking at the same sheet, and it is that shared look which holds the scene together

See also:

• The Swing (La Balançoire)
• La Loge (The Theatre Box)
• Flowers in a Vase