Art Eyewitness Essay: In the Garden with Vincent van Gogh and Gustave Caillebotte

 

Art Eyewitness Essay
 In the Garden with Vincent van Gogh & Gustave Caillebotte

By Ed Voves

Original Photography by Anne Lloyd

Like a ship's anchor, certain works of art serve to give a "mooring" to the art museums which are their home ports. These familiar paintings or often-seen sculptures are easy to take for granted but disconcerting when placed in storage. Conversely, when works we hold in great regard are loaned to another museum for a special exhibition, then the world seems out of kilter.

There's a gap on the gallery wall where my favorite Impressionist landscape usually hangs!!! How can that be? What is to be done?

It is the contention of this essay that the best place to look, when you cannot view beloved works of art, is outside the museum walls. 

That is where great artists always train their eyes and we will be spending some time here in the company of two of the greatest painters from the 1800's, Vincent van Gogh and Gustave Caillebotte.

Self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh & Gustave Caillebotte 

Focus your attention on the realm of nature, as Van Gogh and Caillebotte did. There you will never lack for the inspiration which they discovered in abundance.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

 Black-eyed Susans (rudbeckia) cultivated at the W.B. Saul High School

 of Agricultural Sciences farm in Philadelphia

In recent days, we have been spending some "quality time" with nature, here at Art Eyewitness. One of the signature paintings at our local museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), has indeed "weighed anchor" and departed for foreign shores. 

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2022)

 Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers, 1889

 Philadelphia Museum of Art collection

Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers (1889) is currently on loan to the National Gallery in London which has its own version of this iconic image. The pairing of the Sunflowers paintings provides the centerpiece for a "once-a-lifetime" exhibition. The curators at the National Gallery are presenting over fifty works of art by the legendary Dutch painter who worked in virtual obscurity during his lifetime, 1853-1890.

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888

National Gallery, London, collection

The National Gallery purchased their Sunflowers in 1924 directly from Jo Bonger van Gogh, the artist's sister-in-law and the guardian of his estate and reputation. The National Gallery paid £1304 for Sunflowers, a substantial sum back in the 1920''s.

Philadelphia's Sunflowers was bought in 1935 by Carroll S.Tyson, a cousin of John Singer Sargent and a notable landscape painter and expert in avian art. After Tyson died in 1956, Sunflowers was bequeathed to the PMA and has been a crowd-pleaser ever since. Now it is appearing in a starring role in a major National Gallery exhibition, Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers. This marks the first time that these two Sunflowers have been together since they were in Van Gogh's studio at the Yellow House in Arles in 1889. 

What's the big occasion? The two hundred year anniversary of the founding of the National Gallery, for starters, and the centennial celebration of the purchase of the National Gallery's version of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. 

The two Sunflowers appear along with another major painting by Van Gogh from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, La Berceuse (1889). The two Sunflowers flank the portrait of Augustine Roulin, who is shown rocking the cradle of her infant daughter. 

Sunflowers for Van Gogh had a symbolical connotation - like cypress trees - as will be discussed below. He contemplated displaying the three paintings in a triptych-like manner to honor Madame Roulin as a symbol of the sacred state of motherhood. Sadly, Van Gogh was never to realize his conception.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) 

Gallery view of the Resnick Rotunda at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Placing pictures of sunflowers next to a likeness of Madame Roulin is not as unorthodox as it might seem. The Philadelphia version of Sunflowers customarily hangs next to another portrait of Augustine Roulin (shown in the gallery view, above) in the Resnick Rotunda of the PMA. In this portrait, painted in late 1888, Madame Roulin is shown holding her baby, Marcelle.

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

 Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of Madam Augustine Roulin

 and Baby Marcelle (detail), 1888 

Madame Roulin is said to have been uneasy while being painted by Van Gogh. The Dutch artist held the Roulin family in the highest esteem and affection, but Madame Roulin does appear apprehensive and "out of sorts" in this portrait. Whatever Madame Roulin's frame of mind, it is a rare moment in the Resnick Rotunda when visitors are gazing at her or other nearby works by Van Gogh rather than at Sunflowers. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2021) 

Van Gogh paintings at the Resnick Rotunda, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia's Sunflowers will continue to enjoy its role as a center piece of the  National Gallery celebrations until mid-January 2025. In the meantime, Madame Augustine Roulin and Baby Marcelle can enjoy some well-deserved appreciation without the attention-grabbing Sunflowers stealing the scene.

Fans of Van Gogh's Sunflowers in the Philadelphia area can look to nature for  compensation, at least for the next few weeks. One place in particular stands-out as an idyllic garden-spot, a haven -indeed a heaven - of sunflower splendor: the W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences.

Saul High School is located within the city limits of Philadelphia, with a modern educational campus on one side of a major highway, Henry Ave. On the other side is a facility which looks the set of the old TV show, Green Acres. But it is an honest-to-goodness working farm, with cows, sheep, horses, crops of all kinds, bee hives and cultivated flowers, especially sunflowers.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

A view of the W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences farm 

The setting of the Saul agricultural school is enhanced by its proximity to the Wissahickon Valley Park, a woodland environment over two thousand acres in size, seven miles in length. This makes a visit to the Saul school seem like a journey to Montana's "big sky" country.

The kind of serenity and "oneness" to nature which one encounters at the Saul school is much the same as Van Gogh sought in the vicinity of Arles. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

Sunflowers & Black-eyed Susans at the Saul  Agricultural School farm 

Painting sunflowers was a key element in Van Gogh's attempt to create a "school of the south"  in Provence. To quote the commentary from the PMA web page devoted to their version of Sunflowers::

Throughout his ten-year career, Van Gogh painted sunflowers repeatedly in different arrangements and settings. The shapes, colors, and cheerfulness of the modest flower appealed to him. He associated its yellow color with sunshine, the south, and Christ, the light of the world. Over a single week in August 1888, Van Gogh painted four pictures of sunflowers, including a bold canvas of twelve sunflowers against a turquoise ground, now in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich. The speed of this work was driven by enthusiasm and necessity since the flowers were destined to wilt and fade. This painting is a variation on the work now in Munich. Far from being a simple copy, it is a new interpretation that gives each flower a pronounced personality.

None of Van Gogh's Sunflowers are the least bit wilted or faded. They are as "alive" as the ones we see growing at the Saul High School farm. Every sunflower has its own "pronounced personality" as the PMA commetary notes. 

That insight needs further emphasis. Each sunflower is "one-of-kind" like a snowflake, as unique as a human fingerprint.

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2023 & 2019) 

A sunflower at the Saul Agricultural School farm (above)

 and a detail of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Sunflowers 

Whether waving its diadem of golden ray florets in the breeze at the Saul farm or filling the picture plane of a Van Gogh canvas, each sunflower is a testament to the life force which animates the Universe.

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2021) 

Sunflower "weather" at the Saul Agricultural School farm 

Anne and I make a point of going to the Saul High School farm during the late summer and early autumn, when the the sunflowers there are at their peak. This year, with the PMA's Sunflowers enjoying the London "season", we had added reason to make the Saul sunflowers the focus of our visit.

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2024)) 

Sunflowers at the Saul Agricultural School farm 

We were not disappointed. The weather was fantastic. The sun could not have been brighter in the south of France and the Saul sunflowers were arching upwards like Jacob's Ladder. 

It was the kind of September day, spent painting in the fields and gardens of Provence when Van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo, “Everywhere and all over the vault of heaven is a marvelous blue, and a sun sheds a radiance of pure sulphur, and it is soft and as lovely as the combination of heavenly blues and yellows in a Van der Meer of Delft…" 

Nature has a way of reminding us that its abundance needs to be acknowledged along with our agendas and intentions. We journeyed to the Saul High School farm to bask in the beauty of sunflowers. But the farm's dahlias nudged our elbows and commanded our attention.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

Cultivating dahlias at the Saul Agricultural School farm

Dahlias, unlike sunflowers, did not figure prominently in Van Gogh's oeuvre. But another artist of his era has left us a magnificent landscape dedicated to this beautiful flower. Moreover, the setting of Gustave Caillebotte's Dahlias, Garden at Petit Gennevilliars (1893) beautifully complements that of the Saul High School farm.

Gustave Caillebotte, Dahlias, Garden at Petit Gennevilliers, 1893

Caillebotte's Dahlias is a very significant painting on several counts. It is one of a select number of works by this brilliant, unconventional artist in U.S. collections. This wonderful painting recently entered the collection of the National Gallery in Washington D.C. Moreover, it was among the last of Caillebotte's paintings.

Gustave Caillebotte's career cannot be recapped here. That is best served by recalling the great 2015 exhibition at the National Gallery. For the present, it is important to note that Caillebotte (1848-1894) like Van Gogh, died tragically young, aged 46. He was stricken by pulmonary congestion as he worked in his own garden, at his country estate of Petit Gennevilliers.

Caillebotte was a man of many interests, horticultural being a particular passion. Although the cultivation of rare orchids absorbed much of his time and expertise, dahlias were another favorite and he painted several landscapes featuring this beautiful flower.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

 Just a few of the varieties of dahlias at the Saul Agricultural School 

In a way, dahlias were a perfect match to Caillebotte's personality with his love of hands-on experimentation. A perennial flower, native to Mexico and Central America, dahlias are unusual plants by European standards. Dahlias are rich in sugar content and, therefore, edible. When the Spanish introduced the dahlia to Europe, they became a favorite of botanists who bred new petal shapes and colors. 

In 1872, a shipment of rare, multi-colored dahlias with pointed leaves was sent from Mexico to Holland. Only one dahlia tuber survived the voyage. From this sole survivor, a "red yellow" dahlia craze swept Europe. It was just the kind of a competitive, creative phenomenon that appealed to Caillebotte, cultivating flowers in his green house and garden plots.

There was another aspect to Caillebotte's personality. His family was wealthy, but many family members, including his beloved brother, Rene, died young. Caillebotte had a strong sense of his own mortality. The unsettling aspects of some of his paintings - severed heads of calves, rows of dead chickens and rabbits hanging in butcher-shop windows - undoubtedly testify to his awareness of death.

Caillebotte was conscious of his impending demise but this acted as a spark to his embrace of life.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

Butterflies and dahlias at the Saul Agricultural School farm

Any melancholy thoughts on our part were soon dispelled, as we basked in the glorious sunlight amid the flowers at the Saul High School farm. As if on cue,  the butterflies and honey bees showed-up. They almost always do when we visit Saul.

The sight of butterflies darting amid the rows of brightly-hued zinnias and rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susans), dahlia and sunflowers, is one of the most life-affirming sights I know. The bees go about their business with quiet, purposeful dedication. Nature's industry is marvelous to behold.

Van Gogh was truly perceptive to regard sunflowers as symbolical of the life force of nature. Caillebotte painted several depictions of this magnificent plant, as well. Here is a sequence of like-minded photos which Anne took of the sunflowers at the Saul farm in 2023.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)

Sunflower splendor at the Saul Agricultural School Farm 

These are troubled times in which we find ourselves. So was the era in which Van Gogh and Caillebotte lived. Amidst their woes, with the shadow of death creeping closer, they glimpsed the beauty of nature and recorded it in oil on canvas. 

If we keep looking, we will find beauty too... even if our favorite painting is on loan to a museum in a foreign land.

The sunflowers and dahlias will bloom. The bees and the butterflies will appear.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd

Introductory image: Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024) A photo of a dahlia flower and a butterfly at butterfly the W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences farm in Philadelphia. 

Composite illustration of self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh and Gustave Caillebotte.  Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1887-1888, Oil on canvas: 65.1 × 50 cm) Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Gustave Caillebotte, Self-Portrait, 1888-1889, Oil on canvas: 55 × 46 cm (21 5/8 × 18 1/8 in.) Private Collection.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)  Black-eyed Susans (rudbeckia) cultivated at the W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences farm in Philadelphia. 

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2022) Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers, 1889. Oil on canvas: 36 3/8 x 28 in. (92.4. x 71.1 cm.) Philadelphia Museum of Art #1963-116-19

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch,1853-1890) Sunflowers, 1888. Oil on canvas: 36.3 x 29 in. (92.1. x 3 cm.) National Gallery, London #NG-3863 

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2020) Gallery view of Resnick Rotunda at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024) Vincent van Gogh's  Portrait of Madam Augustine Roulin and Baby Marcelle (Detail), 1888. Oil on canvas: 36 3/8 x 28 15/16 in. (92.4. x 73.5 cm) Philadelphia Museum of Art #1950-92-22

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2021) Van Gogh paintings at the Resnick Rotunda, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Gustave Caillebotte (French, 1848-1894) Dahlias, Garden at Petit Gennevilliers, 1893. Oil on canvas: 61 13/16 x 44 7/8 in. (157 x 114 cm.) National Gallery of Art #216.48.1

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018-2024) The selection of photographs of sunflowers and dahlias, illustrating this essay, were taken during visits to  the W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences farm in Philadelphia during the years 2018-2024. 

Renoir and Friends at the Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.

Renoir and Friends: Luncheon of the Boating Party

Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.

October 7, 2017 to January 7, 2018

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Impressionism derived a great deal of inspiration from Charles Baudelaire’s ideal of the "Heroism of Modern Life.”  In his review of the Salon of 1846, Baudelaire declared that "our age," the nineteenth century, "is no less rich than ancient times in sublime themes." Baudelaire went on to  assert "that since every age and every people have their own form of beauty, we inevitably have ours."

The heroes and heroines who created these new forms of beauty were men like Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), his friend and fellow painter, Gustave Caillebotte, actresses Ellen Andrée and Jeanne Samary, journalist Adrien Maggiolo and the top-hatted patron of the arts, Charles Ephrussi. 

Portrayed in a legendary painting by Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party, these kindred souls are re-united in an outstanding exhibit at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.

Renoir and Friends at the Phillips displays over forty Impressionist paintings, a rare bronze sculpture by Renoir and vintage photos from the late 1870's and 1880's. These works are grouped around Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party to document a key moment in the story of Impressionism.

"Heroism" is not too strong a word for the cultural achievements of Renoir and his talented friends. And like Hercules, these heroes of "everyday life" had occasionally to rest from their labors. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party (detail), 1880–81.

When they took a break, the Impressionists and their colleagues went to the Maisson Fournaise. This suburban restaurant became a legendary "hangout" like the Café Guerbois, in the heart of Paris, had been during the early days of  Impressionism.

The Maisson Fournaise was located in Chatou, about fourteen kilometers to the west of Paris. The restaurant overlooked the River Seine. For rowing and sailing enthusiasts like Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), it was the perfect spot to dock the boat for lunch, a round of drinks and the latest gossip. 

Gustave Caillebotte, A Man Docking His Skiff, 1878

Renoir favored the Maisson Fournaise, too, so much so that he painted the convivial meals he enjoyed there with his friends. His picture, Luncheon of the Boating Party, is among  the greatest of all Impressionist works of art.

Painted over an extended period of time, 1880 to 1881, Luncheon is not an "all in one-sitting" Impressionist work. It is a masterpiece in the Old Master sense, recalling art by Rubens and Watteau. It is a labor of love, created at the high point of the Impressionist movement, which in five years would cease to be a united front as the member artists went their separate ways.

Luncheon of the Boating Party was recognized as a masterpiece right from the start. Its first owner was Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922), the principal art dealer for the Impressionists. It was only sold after Durand-Ruel's death. Luncheon entered the collection of Duncan Phillips (1886-1966), the art enthusiast who opened America's first museum of modern art, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880–81

Phillips first saw Luncheon of the Boating Party in 1911 in Durand-Ruel's gallery. He was so moved that he wrote an essay praising the way that Renoir had conveyed "life's vivacity" in this memorable painting. When the opportunity appeared to purchase Renoir's magnum opus, Phillips paid Durand-Ruel's heirs the astronomical sum of $125,000. 

That was in 1923. Eighteen months earlier, in 1921, Duncan Phillips had opened a small museum at his home, in Washington D.C. Phillips' museum was created to honor his beloved father and brother who had died during the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918.

Phillips' museum was a "heroic" endeavor worthy of Baudelaire's theme. Phillips aimed to create a collection representing the best in modern art. Of the 237 paintings at the museum's founding, 87 were works by masters of American impressionism, including Childe Hassam, John Henry Twatchman and Julian Alden Weir. 

Acquiring Luncheon of the Boating Party was quite a coup by Phillips, enabling art lovers in the U.S. to contrast the works of American Impressionism with one of the signature paintings of the great Renoir.

For all his enthusiasm for Luncheon of the Boating Party, Duncan Phillips did not amass a collection favoring Impressionism, as did his rival, Dr. Albert Barnes. Phillips, in fact, ceased purchasing Impressionist works, except occasionally. After he bought Luncheon of the Boating Party in 1923. Phillips emphasized works by contemporary artists, especially Americans like Arthur Dove, John Marin and Georgia O'Keeffe.

Renoir and Friends at the Phillips is thus a perfect opportunity to investigate the birth of Impressionism in contrast with the subsequent development of Modernism. Almost all of the works in the exhibit (other than Luncheon) come from other museums, including the Musée d'Orsay and the Art Institute of Chicago, and private collections. One has only to move to nearby galleries at the Phillips to trace the cultural impact of Impressionism.

 Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Seine at Argenteuil, 1874

The Renoir and Friends exhibition is arranged with displays highlighting life and leisure along the Seine river. The Impressionists had long favored France's great river in their works. Monet along with Renoir had painted many scenes at Argenteuil early in the 1870's. Like Chatou, Argenteuil was a short train ride from Paris. Active, hardworking people from Paris came for a day in the country, through there are plenty of signs of industrialism and urban sprawl in the paintings of the Impressionists.

Other galleries in the exhibit are devoted to the women and the men we see relaxing in Luncheon of the Boating Party. Some of the greatest contemporary actresses of the period are depicted in Luncheon. These actresses are familiar faces as they often modeled for their painter friends. Ellen Andrée, who is draining a glass of wine in Luncheon, was the downcast protagonist in L'Absinthe by Edgar Degas. She certainly seems to be enjoying herself more in Renoir's painting.

I was especially pleased to see Renoir's A Girl with a Fan from the Clark Art Institute in  Williamstown, Massachusetts. I stumbled on the Clark many years ago during a New England vacation. A Girl with a Fan lodged in my memory with its blending of Impressionist technique and Old Mastery sensibility. Seeing this splendid work of art after all these years was like meeting an old friend.

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), A Girl with a Fan by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1879-1880 

A Girl with a Fan is likely an idealized portrait of Jeanne Samary (1857-1890), one of the leading players of the Comédie-Française. The exhibit displays several photos of Jeanne Samary, who had a much fuller face than the young woman depicted in the painting. In one of the photos, the actress looks at the viewer with a big, friendly grin quite different from the demure smile of A Girl with a Fan.

In Luncheon of the Boating Party, Jeanne Samary is believed to be the woman holding her ears. Around the time that Renoir was painting Luncheon, Samary's name was frequently mentioned in the tattle columns of Paris newspapers. Her plans to marry the wealthy aristocrat, Paul Legard, had aroused the bitter opposition of his parents, The hands over her ears likely denote Samary's dismay about being the "talk of the town."

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party (detail), 1880–81

Frequent use of "believed to be" or "likely" may lead to the conclusion that sloppy guesswork was involved in trying to establish the respective identities of the "Boating Party." Instead, an incredible amount of scholarship, beginning with the efforts of the German art historian, Julius Meier-Graefe (1867-1935), has been devoted to the study of Luncheon of the Boating Party.

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Placement Chart for Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party

An elaborate chart of Luncheon is on view in the exhibition. Each of the identities or presumed identities of the protagonists is marked by number. The seated male character (number 8 on the right) looking out toward the river is certainly Gustave Caillebotte, yearning to get back to his boat. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party (detail), 1880–81

The young woman (number 2) playing with the little dog is Renoir's girl friend and soon-to-be wife, Aline Charigot. Just twenty years old in 1879, Charigot was a seamstress and thus came from a working-class background like Renoir. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Portrait of Madame Renoir by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, c.1885

Once again, this is a somewhat idealized likeness. The wonderful portrait from the Philadelphia Museum of Art collection, painted around 1885, is much more accurate. The sitter was Madame Renoir by then and Renoir was clearly in love with the "unidealized" woman he married.

Why did Renoir include so many "somewhat idealized" portraits in Luncheon of the Boating Party? Renoir was the greatest portrait painter among the Impressionists. It was not for lack of talent, but rather, I think, because he was aiming to depict a "universal" moment, a meeting of minds, hearts and souls that would stand the test of time.

Renoir certainly devoted a great deal of effort to achieve this goal. The final gallery of the exhibit analyses the careful configuration of the protagonists which Renoir devoted to Luncheon of the Boating Party. 

Detail comparison of Luncheon of the Boating Party, infrared photo at right.

An infrared photo of Luncheon, shows that Renoir changed the angle of the head of Charles Ephrussi (1849-1905), wearing a top hat in the background. At first, Renoir had Ephrussi looking toward the river, as he did with Caillebotte. But then he shifted Ephrussi's gaze toward his companion, believed to be Jules Laforgue. Ephrussi was the editor of the influential Gazette des Beaux-Arts and Laforgue was his personal secretary. Business, as well as pleasure, was the subject of conversation at the Maisson Fournaise.

Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party recorded a special moment in French history as well as representing universal human qualities and aspirations. When displayed at the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition in 1882, Renoir's painting was the hit of the exhibit.  

The 1880's, however, were a tense period in French history. The decade was marked by bank failures, the Boulanger Affair which nearly toppled the Third Republic, the rise of anti-Semitism soon to ignite the Dreyfus Affair. Renoir, by most accounts a splendid man, succumbed to anti-Jewish feeling and turned on Charles Ephrussi, who came from a distinguished Jewish banking family.

Happiness, alas, never lasts for long. Perhaps that is why Luncheon of the Boating Party strikes such a chord with so many people. 

What we see happening at the Maisson Fournaise in 1879 is a moment in Paradise Lost. Brief, transitory, heart-warming and heart-breaking. Such moments are short-lived, except in our memories and in the paintings of Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved 


Introductory Image:                                                                                                          Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Detail of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880–81. Oil on canvas, 51 1/4 x 69 1/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1923

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Detail of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880–81. Oil on canvas, 51 1/4 x 69 1/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1923

Gustave Caillebotte, A Man Docking His Skiff, 1878. Oil on canvas, 29 x 36 1/2 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo: Katherine Wetzel © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880–81. Oil on canvas, 51 1/4 x 69 1/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1923

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Seine at Argenteuil,1874. Oil on canvas, 19 3/4 x 25 3/4 in. Portland Art Museum, Oregon, Bequest of Winslow B. Ayer

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), A Girl with a Fan by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Oil on canvas, 65,4 x 54 cm c. 1879- 1880, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts 

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Detail of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880–81. Oil on canvas, 51 1/4 x 69 1/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1923

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Placement Chart for Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, exhibited at the Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Detail of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880–81. Oil on canvas, 51 1/4 x 69 1/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1923

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Portrait of Madam Renoir by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Oil on canvas, Framed: 36 × 30 1/2 × 5 inches (91.4 × 77.5 × 12.7 cm) Philadelphia Museum of Art, W1957-1-1, Purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund, 1957

Detail comparison of Luncheon of the Boating Party, exhibited at the Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.