Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Le Pont Neuf

Le Pont Neuf – the Paris bridge in the middle of a summer day

Le Pont Neuf is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1872. The original measures 94 cm x 75 cm and is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington. We paint our version by hand in oils on canvas, in eight landscape sizes between 50 x 40 and 150 x 120 cm. Among them is 94 x 75 cm, exactly the measurement of the original, with 110 x 90 cm as the step above.

Heat in the sun and coolness in the shade, in one scene

The painting shows the Pont Neuf in Paris on a clear, sunny day in high summer. Renoir used strong colours, and what carries the scene is exactly the colour and the play of light: the same picture gives off the heat of a summer day and at the same time suggests the pleasant coolness of the shade, which is unusual for a city scene, since a city scene generally settles for one or the other. The scene is cheerful and full of life, and the figures on the bridge are enjoying their surroundings rather than standing there to fill the space.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. Everything rests on the difference between the sunlit side and the shaded side, and that difference is precisely what a print evens out: the screen pushes both toward the middle, the shadow greys over, the sun loses its warmth, and the bridge becomes an evenly bright wall. A hand-painted canvas holds the two temperatures apart, because they are painted with different density and different colour rather than with different brightness, and the scene stays hot where it has to be hot.

In the room

The scene is wide, horizontal and lively, so it calls for a main wall and some distance: a living room above the sofa, a dining room above a long table, or an entrance hall where you can step back. For an ordinary room we suggest 80 x 65 or 94 x 75 cm, the second being the measurement of the original. On a large wall 130 x 105 or 150 x 120 cm works, where the figures on the bridge separate from one another. Below 60 x 50 cm the crowd closes up and the bridge becomes only a line, so we do not suggest the smallest sizes for this subject.

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 Neuf 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: the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris on a summer day, with figures on the bridge, 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 same picture gives off the heat of the summer sun and suggests the coolness of the shade – it is carried by colour and light, not by drawing

See also:

• The Skiff
• The Wave
• A Clearing in the Woods