Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Les Grands Boulevards

Les Grands Boulevards – the short, quick strokes of a Paris street

Les Grands Boulevards is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1875. The original measures 63.5 cm x 52.1 cm and is held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We paint our version by hand in oils on canvas, in eight landscape sizes with measurements from 50 x 40 up to 150 x 120 cm. Among them is 64 x 52 cm, the size that comes closest to the original, with 110 x 90 cm for a larger wall.

A stroke that changes direction all at once

About the scene itself our record holds no description, but something is recorded that says more about this canvas: what Renoir’s stroke is like. His strokes are short, quick and rounded; they gather in one direction and then change it abruptly. It is that sudden turn which gives the street its impression of bustle, because the eye finds no long, quiet line anywhere to rest along. At the beginning of his career Renoir gave much of his time to the study of light, colour, form and the brushstroke.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. Everything that holds this scene up is the direction and length of the individual stroke, and that is exactly what a print flattens: the screen has a regular pattern of its own that lies over Renoir’s and cancels it, so the bustle becomes an even, grainy surface. A hand-painted canvas keeps every stroke to itself – where it starts, where it goes, and where it turns without warning.

In the room

The subject is horizontal and evenly full, with no single point pulling the eye, so it works well in spaces people pass through: a hallway, an entrance, or an office, and equally in a living room above a chest of drawers. For an ordinary room we suggest 80 x 65 or 90 x 75 cm, while 64 x 52 cm suits a narrow wall. On a large wall 130 x 110 or 150 x 120 cm works, where the individual strokes separate from one another. Below 50 x 40 cm the street draws together into a single grainy 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. Les Grands Boulevards 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: Paris boulevard in its bustle, 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 strokes are short, quick and rounded, gathering in one direction and then changing it abruptly

See also:

• The Harvesters
• Landscape at Wargemont
• Beaulieu Landscape