Dance at Bougival

Probably the last of these three Dance pictures to be completed, Dance at Bougival is the most romantic of the trilogy. Eyes masked by his boatman's straw hat, the male partner expresses his intentions through body language that is as legible today as it would have been a century and a quarter ago. His female companion's willing compliance completes the harmony, both visual and sensual, that is at the heart of this painting. The touching of ungloved hands and the proximity of the dancers' faces would have appeared audacious to a late nineteenth-century audience. Like the companion Dance pictures, Dance at Bougival achieves the luminosity of Renoir's Impressionist work while maintaining the solidity of modeling that characterized his most recent portraits and figure paintings. The participants are shown enjoying a Sunday afternoon ball at Bougival, a village ten miles west of Paris with a somewhat dubious reputation.

Related: Dance in the City and Dance in the Country