Two Sisters (On the Terrace) Lithograph-Pierre-Auguste Renoir-French, 1841-1919. Original work 1881. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection
“He loves everything joyous, brilliant, and consoling in life,” an anonymous interviewer once wrote about Pierre-Auguste Renoir. This may explain why Two Sisters (On the Terrace) is one of the most popular paintings in the Art Institute. Here Renoir depicted the radiance of lovely young women on a warm and beautiful day. The older girl, wearing the female boater’s blue flannel, is posed in the center of the evocative landscape backdrop of Chatou, a suburban town where the artist spent much of the spring of 1881. She gazes absently beyond her younger companion, who seems, in a charming visual conceit, to have just dashed into the picture. Technically, the painting is a tour de force: Renoir juxtaposed solid, almost life-size figures against a landscape that—like a stage set—seems a realm of pure vision and fantasy. The sewing basket in the left foreground evokes a palette, holding the bright, pure pigments that the artist mixed, diluted, and altered to create the rest of the painting. Although the girls were not sisters, Renoir’s dealer showed the work with this title, along with Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando and others, at the seventh Impressionist exhibition, in 1882.
This is a lithograph, or an authorized copy of an original work created by an artist or other skilled craftsmen.
The Artist's Bio: French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) was one of the artists most closely associated with Impressionism. He exhibited in the Paris Salon in 1864, and the first Impressionist art exhibition in 1874, which brought him fame. A master of portraying the female form, Renoir's paintings often depicted women, and his portraits were among his most popular and critically acclaimed subjects. He associated with Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, and Alfred Sisley, among other Impressionist Masters. Later in life, he moved to southern France for the warm climate. Renoir was a very prolific painter throughout his life and executed original lithographs and etchings.
Type: Original custom framed lithograph (Purchased at auction) Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir Style: Impressionism Custom Framed: Ornate Gold Wood Framed Size (Outer Edge): 13 x 15 Inches Image Size (Opening): 4 x 5" Inches Hanging Hardware: Sawtooth hanger
