Pierre-Auguste Renoir – On the Banks of the Seine at Rueil

On the Banks of the Seine at Rueil – one of the few Renoir painted on wood

On the Banks of the Seine at Rueil is a work by Renoir from 1879, painted on a wooden support. The original measures 65.8 cm x 37.3 cm and is held by the Wallraf-Richartz Museum and the Corboud Foundation in Cologne. Our oil painting On the Banks of the Seine at Rueil is painted by hand in oils on canvas, in eight markedly elongated sizes from 66 x 37 to 200 x 120 cm, among them the size of the original, 66 x 37 cm.

Yellow under the flowers, white under the sky

What is recorded is the method, not only the scene. Before filling the support with short strokes running in different directions, the painter partly covered it with opaque colours: yellow where the flowers and growth stand, white where the sky is. Those grounds are still visible through the later strokes, so the growth glows from underneath and the sky stays light even where the stroke is thin.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. It is precisely this construction – a light ground, short strokes over it in several directions, and a visible gap between them – that print closes up: the screen fills the gaps, and the light that should come from beneath the colour disappears. A hand-painted version repeats the method in layers, so the growth keeps a warmth the upper colour does not give on its own.

In the room

The canvas is markedly elongated – almost twice as wide as it is high – and that is exactly its use: it sits above a sofa, above a bed, above a long chest of drawers, or in a strip of wall between windows and doors where an ordinary format will not go. For a strip like that we recommend 130 x 75 cm, above a longer sofa 180 x 100 cm, and for a smaller room 90 x 50 cm. Because of its shape it works better alone than in a group of pictures.

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. On the Banks of the Seine at Rueil 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: a flowering river bank along the Seine, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 66 x 37 cm to 200 x 120 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the work was long owned by the artist’s family and is one of the few Renoir painted on a wooden support

See also:

• Garden in the Rue Cortot
• Path Leading through Tall Grass
• Springtime (in Chatou)