Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Mother Anthony’s Tavern

Mother Anthony’s Tavern – a room where nobody turns towards us

Mother Anthony’s Tavern is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1866. The original measures 194.0 x 131.0 cm, is recorded under inventory number NM 2544 and belongs to the collection of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. Our art reproduction Mother Anthony’s Tavern is a hand-painted painting in oil on canvas, in eight sizes from 60 x 90 to 120 x 170 cm.

The server, the table and the newspaper

The scene is set in the parlour of an inn. At the left edge a serving woman in a black dress and white apron stacks the plates; at the white-clothed table sit a young man in a dark coat with a soft tie and a man in a pale straw hat seen from behind; between them a bearded man stands in a blue working smock, and further back an older woman in a dark cap is barely made out. A shaggy white poodle lies on the floor and an open newspaper rests on the table. The wall behind them is covered with caricatures, a face and a line of musical notation left by earlier guests.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. The work lives on the soft transitions in the grey of the wall and on the dense white paint of the tablecloth and the dog’s coat; both are built from individual strokes of oil colour laid side by side with a brush. The paint keeps the thickness of the load and the track of the bristles, which printed paper cannot imitate, so an oil painting on canvas reads differently under changing light.

In the room

The brown-grey range is calm and the scene has no single bright centre, so the painting takes being looked at from a distance and does not tire even where people sit for a long time: a dining room, a hospitality space, or a wider hallway. Because of the large format it is worth leaving a few metres in front of it, since the individual figures only separate from one another at a distance. For a smaller wall 70 x 100 cm is enough, for an open living space we suggest 100 x 150 cm, and on a large wall 120 x 170 cm works.

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. Mother Anthony’s Tavern 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: scene in a tavern room, with the server and guests at the table, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 60 x 90 cm to 120 x 170 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: not one of the figures turns towards the viewer – the scene is watched from the side, not performed

See also:

• La Loge (The Theatre Box)
• The Large Bathers
• Promenade Undergrowth