Tanz in Bougival

Renoir made this in 1883, at a moment when he was quietly pulling back from pure Impressionism and wanting firmer edges and drawing again. It was one of three dance scenes he painted that year for his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, each set in a different mood. Bougival was a riverside spot outside Paris where city people came on Sundays to eat, drink, and dance, and he puts us right at the edge of the floor. The man in the straw hat is thought to be his friend Paul Lhote, and the woman in the red bonnet is often identified as Suzanne Valadon, then an artists' model who would later become a serious painter herself. X-rays show Renoir changed the woman's body as he worked, so the couple we see was arrived at, not planned. Near their feet lie a few spent matches and a small bouquet dropped on the ground.