Pierre-Auguste Renoir – In the Summer

In the Summer – a single figure on a wicker chair

In the Summer is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1868. The original measures 85.0 x 59.0 cm, is recorded under inventory number A I 1014 and belongs to the collection of the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Our hand-painted painting In the Summer is made in oil on canvas, in eight sizes from 58 x 80 to 110 x 160 cm.

The white shirt, slipped from the shoulder

A young woman sits on a cane chair with her hands folded in her lap. Her long dark hair falls over her shoulders, a white chemise has slipped from her left shoulder, and a red-and-white striped skirt lies across her knees. Behind her is a wall of loose green foliage. Her gaze passes by us; the work is built on the contrast between warm flesh, white linen and dense green.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. In this subject the difference is easy to see: the white chemise and the dark hair live on the thickness of the paint — the hair is set down in long, flowing strokes, the linen in short, dense ones. The paint keeps 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 portrait is calm and is carried by a single figure, so it holds a wall without restlessness and works well where people rest or work: a bedroom, a hallway or an office. The green-and-red range is warm but not loud, and the painting does not compete with what already stands in the room. For a smaller wall 70 x 100 cm is enough, above a larger piece of furniture we suggest 90 x 130 cm, and on a tall wall 110 x 160 cm works, with 100 x 150 cm as the step below. Under 58 x 80 cm the face and the slipped shirt stop being distinct enough for the scene to carry from close to.

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. In the Summer 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: young woman on a wicker chair, white shirt slipped from her shoulder, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 58 x 80 cm to 110 x 160 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the scene is carried by one figure with no story behind it – everything is in the set of the hands and the fall of the shirt

See also:

• The Swing (La Balançoire)
• Girls at the Piano
• La Loge (The Theatre Box)