Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Two Sisters (On the Terrace)

Two Sisters – a title the painter did not give

Two Sisters (On the Terrace) is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1881. The original measures 81 cm x 100 cm and is exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago. Our oil painting Two Sisters is painted by hand in oils on canvas, in eight portrait sizes from 40 x 50 to 150 x 190 cm.

Two girls who are not sisters

On what can be seen on the canvas, the record for this painting says no more than the title does, and we will claim no more either. Two things are known: the second title, On the Terrace, is not the painter’s and was given later, and the girls on the canvas are in fact not related.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. Oil colour goes onto canvas in layers that stay thinly visible through one another, and it is exactly that depth a printed sheet does not have – there everything lies in one plane, under an even screen. A hand-painted canvas also carries the track of the brush and a slightly uneven surface, which behaves differently from paper as the light in a room changes.

In the room

The format is portrait and the ladder of sizes runs high, so the work takes both a small and a very large hanging. For a narrow wall, between two windows or beside tall furniture we recommend 60 x 80 cm, for an ordinary living room 80 x 100 cm, and for a high wall or a stairwell 120 x 150 cm. Because it is an upright scene with figures, it does best at eye level and not too high above the furniture.

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. Two Sisters (On the Terrace) 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: two girls on a terrace, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 40 x 50 cm to 150 x 190 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the second title On the Terrace was given to the painting by Paul Durand, patron of the Impressionists and its first owner, and Renoir did not dispute it

See also:

• La Promenade
• Dance at the Moulin de la Galette
• Near the Lake