American Friends Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie

A man talks to a young woman on a swing. A young girl watches them alongside another man, leaning against a tree. They appear to have surprised the couple in conversation, just as we, the viewer, have. As if in a snapshot, Renoir catches the glances turned towards the man seen from the back while the young woman looks away, her cheeks rosy with embarrassment.

“La Balançoire”, or “The Swing” bears many similarities to Renoir’s seminal “Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette. Both pictures were painted in the summer of 1876 and the same carefree atmosphere infuses both pictures. As in “Le Bal”, Renoir places particular emphasis on catching the effects of sunlight dappled by the foliage. The quivering light is rendered by the patches of pale colour, particularly on the clothing and the ground. The models of “La Balançoire”, namely Renoir’s brother Edmond, the painter Norbert Goeneutte, and Jeanne, a young woman from Montmartre, can all be spotted dancing in “Le Bal”. Both paintings were in the end purchased by the same buyer, a name we all know: Gustave Caillebotte.
“La Balançoire” is currently on show in the Musée d’Orsay’s exhibition “Renoir and Love. A Joyful Modernity (1865-1885)”, on display until July 19th 2026.

AFMO members benefit from skip-the-line and early hours access to this exhibition.

Auguste Renoir, La Balançoire, 1876, © GrandPalaisRmn (musée d’Orsay) / Sylvie Chan-Liat

French sculptor, James Pradier, began his studies in his hometown of Geneva before entering the Ecole des Beaux Art in 1811, in the studio of the sculptor Frédéric Lemot. Pradier quickly became one of Lemot’s most brilliant students, winning the Grand Prix de Rome in 1812.

A central theme in his work was the female figure, however his style cannot simply be reduced to the introduction of pleasant sensuality into an antique repertoire. This is exemplified by the work shown above: Sappho. The statue combines the nobility of marble with the subject’s dignity yet the meditative intensity of her expression gives her presence an intense interiority. She appears in despair.

Little is known about Sappho. Probably born to an aristocratic family on the island of Le**os around 620 BCE, Sappho was regularly cited as one of the greatest poets of Antiquity. Often referred to as ‘the Poetess’ and hailed by Plato as ‘the tenth Muse’. Many of her songs centred around the overwhelming power of love.

This statue was displayed at the Salon in 1852. When James Pradier passed suddenly, she was covered with a black veil and he was posthumously awarded the medal of honor.

Photo: Francois-Xavier Watine, WebStyleStory. October 2025

Retour en images of last Saturday night at the Musée d’Orsay. What a night!

Thank you to everyone who came. To view more highlights and the gallery of our Springtime Cocktail, visit the link in bio.

All image credits: Ekaterina Aseeva / WebStyleStory, May 2026.

Rousseau’s artistic career evolved in Parisian neighbourhoods undergoing complete transformations, around Montparnasse where he lived. Surrounded by artisans and merchants from the petite bourgeoisie, he painted numerous paintings of his entourage, such as the one shown above. Some of these works would be commissioned, while others served as currency to settle bills.

Shown above is ‘La Noce’. At first sight, this work appears to look like a photographic portrait of a wedding, the protagonists posing in formal attire for the photographer. Yet, there is something surreal about this representation. The characters’ feet are missing, as often is the case in Rousseau’s work. The bride appears to float. Her veil sits upon her grandmother’s dress, contradicting the perspective suggested by the placement of each character at a different level in the composition. This was not a clumsy mistake but intentional, deliberate choice as Rousseau repainted the work to achieve this effect. The bride is like an apparition suspended in air.

Rousseau introduces an element of the bizarre to reality. The dog in the foreground, comically oversized and awkward as he is, acts as a repoussoir or device to take the eye deep into the composition, asserting Rousseau as a master of spatial paradox.
The group is framed by stylised trees that are too small and have improbable foliage. Combined with the yellow ochre background and ethereally intense blue sky, a kind of mandorla is created around the group.

‘La Noce’ is currently on show in exhibition “Henri Rousseau. A Painter’s Ambition”, on display until July 20th, 2026.

Shown here: Henri Rousseau, “La Noce”, 1905, © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée de l’Orangerie) / Hervé Lewandowski

In the spring of 1883, Renoir completed three life-size paintings of dancing couples: ‘Dance at Bougival’ (Slide 1), ‘City Dance’ (Slide 2), and ‘Country Dance’ (Slide 3). These marked a shift in style for Renoir as the figures retain the softness and ease of Impressionism but emphasise form and outline. The three ‘Dances’ mark the epitome of Renoir’s representation of couples and are undoubtedly the best depictions of modern love. ‘Dance at Bougival’, set during a Sunday afternoon ball in a village ten miles west of Paris with a somewhat dubious reputation, is the most romantic of these works.

The female model represented in both ‘Dance at Bougival’ and ‘City Dance’ is a seventeen-year-old Marie-Clementine Valadon, better known today as Suzanne Valadon, the renowned Post-Impressionist painter. Her counterpart is Paul Lhote, a writer and friend of Renoir’s. The joy and passion shared by these two is evident in ‘Dance at Bougival’. The man’s eyes are masked by his boatman’s straw hat, yet he expresses his intentions through his body language. The woman completes the harmony, both visually and sensually, that is at the heart of this painting. Their ungloved hands clasped together, the proximity of their faces and her absorbed, half-closed gaze announce a public intimacy that would have read as flirtatious in the 1880s. Renoir, however, protects them with a ring of circular rhythms: the sweep of the skirt, the loop of the man’s arm, the turn of their clasped fingers, and the flicker of green‑blue brushwork in the trees. These spirals allow us, as viewers, to not only see their dance but to hear it.

‘Dance at Bougival’, ‘Country Dance’, and ‘City Dance’ are all currently on show in the Musée d’Orsay’s exhibition “Renoir and Love. A Joyful Modernity (1865-1885)”, on display until July 19th 2026.

AFMO members benefit from skip-the-line and early hours access to this exhibition.