La Grenouillère 1869

Introduction:

La Grenouillère was a popular bathing place. It was on the Ile-de-Croissy (now: Ile de la Chaussée) in the Seine, west from Paris, between Bougival and Chatou, see card below; it’s hard to relocate it now (R22,p78). On the right there is a floating open air café, in the middle a small island called ‘camembert’ or ‘the flowerpot’. Both to be reached across scaffold planks. On the left their are bathing huts. In september 1869 Monet and Renoir painted here together. And maybe Renoir did so before in 1868 (R30,no29) and later on in 1873 (R30,no95); Raeburn dates all pictures at 1869 (R31,no13); but it’s clear that the painting style of these two pictures are different. Monet painted another version that was rejected by the Salon (see) and destroyed during World War II (R22,CR136). Monet wrote 1869/09/25 that he had finished a few poor sketches and that Renoir had spent two months here (R31,p191). But it’s the first time that Monet’s paintings had this special vibration (R22,p78). Monet than dwelled in Saint-Michel near Bougival and Renoir with his parents in voisins-Louveciennes. See here below their results, by some called ‘the birth of Impressionism’ (R3,p92; R32,p19). Maybe Renoir did refer to their painting in Grénouillère when he wrote: ‘One morning one of us ran out of black, and than Impressionism was born (R32,p19). (For the subscriptions of the paintings see . )

1869, Monet, CR134, La Grenouillère, 75×100, Metropolitan (iR2; R22)

1869, Renoir, La Grenouillère,
66×86, Nm Stockholm (iR2; R30,no33; R31,no13)

1869, Renoir, La Grenouillère, 65×93, ORC Winterthur (iR2; R30,no33)

1869, Monet, CR135, Bathers at La Grenouillère,
73x92cm, NG London (iR2; R22)

1869 or:68, Renoir, La Grenouillère,
59×80, Pushkin (iR2; R30,no29; R31,no12)

Renoir, 1869 or:73, La Grenouillère, 45×56, Milwaukee AM (iR22; R30,no95)

1869, Monet, CR137, Rowing boats (La Grenouillère), 33x46cm, Kh Bremen (iR2; R22)

Main sources:

R22 = Wildenstein (1996), CR 134-137
R31 = Raeburn (1985), no.12 +13
R30 = Dony: Renoir, no. 29, 33, 34
For the other sources see general references .
most pictures come from the-athenaeum.org (=iR2)
http://colourlex.com/project/claude-monet-bathing-at-la-grenouillere/
nl.wikipedia.org (=iR5)
en.wikipedia.org (=iR3)