Notes

The Woman Behind The Luncheon of the Boating Party

Not far from the White House, in what was once a private home, is the most beautiful Renoir in the world, The Luncheon of the Boating Party. It represents an oasis of romance in a powerful city, famed for the hard reality of government rather than a celebration of life and love by an Impressionist artist.

How does this masterpiece happen to be in the middle of Washington? We can credit one man, Duncan Phillips, whose art museum and its collection is one of the gems of the nation's capital, bringing pleasure to scores of visitors long after his death in 1966. Phillips bought The Luncheon of the Boating Party in Paris in 1923 for $125,000 (considered a small fortune then). Imagine the reaction of Duncan's wife Marjorie, an artist herself, when he made the purchase from the family of Paul Durand-Ruel, an early promoter of the Impressionists.

The Phillips Collection has done extensive research on the painting, especially its subjects who are simply Renoir's friends and colleagues sharing a luncheon on a glorious afternoon at the Restaurant Fournaise, located along the Seine River. They represent a diverse gathering including an artist, an art collector, a journalist, a poet, a couple of actresses, and even the family of the restaurant owner.

But one of the stars of this special gathering is Renoir's future wife, Aline Charigot. In 1880 when Renoir began The Luncheon of the Boating Party, he was almost 40 years old and had previously experienced love. For just a few years before, his mistress and model Margot had tragically died of smallpox.

Aline was only in her early twenties when Renoir so lovingly portrayed her and he was most likely already smitten with the beautiful young seamstress from Paris. In the painting, she immediately catches the viewer's eye, absorbed in playing with her little dog. Is she about to kiss her rather startled looking pet?

boat party london In fact, did the artist sense, as sometimes happens, that Aline was to become the center of his life? For soon she would be gracing Renoir's other works of art celebrating his favorite theme, joie de vivre, in works such as Dance in the Country and By the Seashore. The lovers would marry in 1890 and have three children, Pierre, Jean (later to become a famous film director), and Claude.

Renoir and Aline eventually had to move to southern France because of his chronic rheumatoid arthritis. For almost twenty years, Aline cared for her ailing husband who finally had to be confined to a wheelchair. Sometimes Renoir could barely hold his brushes to paint because of the intense pain.

Yet it was Aline who predeceased Renoir. For in 1915, shortly after visiting her son Jean who had been critically wounded in World War I, she succumbed to heart failure. In his biography of his father, Jean credited his mother with saving him from death, intervening when his leg was about to be amputated.

According to Jean, his mother "opposed the operation with such energy that the military doctor at the hospital abandoned the idea. He was replaced by Professor Laroyenne, a specialist, who cured the gangrene by using a curious system of circulating distilled water through my leg. He did not conceal from my mother that I would not have survived the amputation. As soon as my mother saw that I was out of danger, she went back to Cagnes and died."

So that ultimately, the carefree Aline of the The Luncheon of the Boating Party, would die a heroine.

To view Renoir's timeless painting, google Happy Valentine's Day: Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party and Valentine's Day Through an Artist's Eyes: The Woman Behind Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party.

Quote of Jean Renoir is from his book, Renoir: My Father.

Joan Hart is executive director of Museum One, Inc., a non-profit outreach service in Washington, D.C., bringing the arts into the local community.
Website: http://boatparty-london.com