Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Landscape at Wargemont

Landscape at Wargemont – hills in greens, violets and deep blues

Landscape at Wargemont is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1879. The original measures 100 cm x 80.6 cm and is held by the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio. We paint our version by hand in oils on canvas, in eight landscape sizes reaching from 50 x 40 all the way to 150 x 120 cm. Among them is 100 x 81 cm, which matches the measurement of the original, with 120 x 100 cm for a larger wall.

Smooth strokes and patches of yellow

The painting was made during the artist’s first visit to the estate of his patron Paul Bérard. Renoir set down a landscape of hills and a valley, for which he used unexpectedly smooth strokes in greens, violets and deep blues – smooth because on this canvas the individual touch is not visible as it is in his city scenes. Against those cool colours he set patches of yellow, densest in the line of trees at the back, and it is those that drive the scene into depth.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. The scene rests on the relation between the cool smooth areas and the warm patches laid into them, and that relation is exactly what a print evens out: the screen pushes both groups of colour toward the middle, the yellow loses its warmth, and the line of trees flattens into the background. A hand-painted canvas leaves the yellow patches denser than the ground they lie on, so they stay in front even when they are small.

In the room

The subject is horizontal, open and quiet, without narrative, so it works well on the main wall of a shared room: above the sofa, above a chest of drawers, or in a dining room where there is some distance in front of it. For an ordinary room we suggest 90 x 75 or 100 x 81 cm, the second being the measurement of the original. On a large wall 120 x 100 or 150 x 120 cm works, where the yellow patches separate from the green ground. The two smallest sizes, 50 x 40 and 60 x 50 cm, belong in a hallway or a study.

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. Landscape at Wargemont 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: landscape of hills and valley, with a line of trees at the back, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 50 x 40 cm to 150 x 120 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the cool green, violet and blue areas are unusually smooth here, and it is the patches of yellow that drive the scene into depth

See also:

• Beaulieu Landscape
• La Grenouillère
• Promenade Undergrowth