Description
Le Pont de Chatou – the place where Renoir and Monet painted water
| Year of creation: | 1875 |
| Original size: | 65.2 cm x 51 cm |
| Painting style: | Impressionism |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Located: | Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA |
Le Pont de Chatou is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1875. The original measures 65.2 cm x 51 cm and is held by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. We paint our version by hand in oils on canvas, in eight landscape sizes ranging from 50 x 40 up to 150 x 120 cm. Among them is 65 x 51 cm, which matches the measurement of the original, with 110 x 90 cm for a larger wall.
What is recorded about this canvas
About the scene itself – how the bridge sits in the picture and what lies beside it – our record holds no description, and we do not add one here. Something else is recorded, and for this subject it says more than a description would: at Chatou, Renoir spent a great deal of time with the painter Monet, and together they made numerous studies there of the water and of the life along it. The subject is therefore not an incidental landscape but the place where two painters, side by side, tested the same question – how to paint water. Through the first two decades of his career Renoir gave much of his time to landscape, and it was there that he went at light, colour and the stroke most directly.
Why hand-painted, not a print
Our version is not a print. Water is the hardest thing a reproduction can face, because it is not made of shapes but of reflections: of short strokes, each different from the next, with no edge to them. The screen gives them an edge, and the river stiffens into a pattern that does not move. A hand-painted canvas leaves every stroke different and of differing density, so the surface stays restless even when the viewer stands still in front of it.
In the room
The subject is horizontal and quiet, with no single point pulling the eye, so it works well in a shared room: above the sofa, above a chest of drawers, or in a dining room. For an ordinary room we suggest 80 x 65 or 90 x 70 cm, while the measurement of the original, 65 x 51 cm, suits a narrow wall or a hallway. On a large wall 130 x 100 or 150 x 120 cm works, where the strokes on the water separate from one another and the river gains depth. Below 50 x 40 cm the reflections merge into a single area.
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. Le Pont de Chatou 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: bridge and river at Chatou, 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: at Chatou, Renoir and Monet painted side by side and made numerous studies of water there
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