Pierre-Auguste Renoir – The Skiff

The Skiff – orange and blue, set side by side

The Skiff is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1875. The original measures 92 cm x 71 cm and is held by the National Gallery in London. Our oil painting The Skiff is painted by hand in oils on canvas, in eight landscape sizes from 50 x 40 to 150 x 120 cm, among them the size of the original, 92 x 71 cm.

An orange skiff on a blue river

The carrying effect of this picture is a pair of colours: the orange hue of the boat sits in the blue of the river, and because orange and blue are complementary, side by side they become more intense than either would be alone. The painting was probably made at Chatou on the Seine, where Renoir painted many boating scenes during the 1870s.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. Because the whole effect rests on how orange and blue meet, printing is particularly delicate with this subject: the screen mixes the two colours at the border, and it is exactly that contact, the thing that makes the picture work, which fades. Oil colour laid on by hand leaves both fields clean and the border between them sharp, even when you look at the canvas from close to.

In the room

The format is landscape and the scene is light and open, so the work takes a brighter room as well: the wall facing a window, a dining room, a bright hallway, or a bathroom with daylight. Because this is a colour contrast rather than a matter of detail, the subject works smaller than most on this shelf: 60 x 50 cm is enough beside a table, 92 x 71 cm is the size of the original and a good choice for an average wall, and 130 x 100 cm carries the main wall of a living room.

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. The Skiff 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: an orange skiff on a blue river, 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: probably painted at Chatou on the Seine; orange and blue are complementary colours and strengthen one another side by side

See also:

• Garden in the Rue Cortot
• On the Banks of the Seine at Rueil
• Path Leading through Tall Grass