Madame Renoir in a Boat

Shown here is Renoir's wife, Aline Charigot, whom the artist married in 1890. Of all the works produced by members of the Impressionist school, Renoir's are perhaps the most immediately engaging, and this was due in no small part to his choice of subjects - often women and children. Equally impressive was his skill in uniting the human figure with the landscape setting as is evident in this work. By the mid-1880s, Renoir's adherence to the Impressionist's aesthetic had begun to waver and he became much more interested in sculptural form. He also started to spend more time on his preparatory studies, as seen here, working up the structural elements in the composition. Over the course of his long career, he painted many portraits of his wife and children, and after 1890, he concentrated almost exclusively on the members of his family and household staff.