Algerian Landscape, the Ravine of the Wild Woman

Renoir could afford this trip because of one piece of luck. In January 1881 the dealer Durand-Ruel bought a batch of his canvases outright, and by March he was on a boat to Algiers. He was following Delacroix, who had gone to North Africa in 1832 and come back with pictures Renoir had admired for years. He lodged at Mustapha Inférieur, on the slope above the city, and painted what lay within walking distance of it. This ravine is on the eastern edge of Algiers, between the districts now called Bir Mourad Raïs and Oued Kniss. The wild woman of its name comes from a local story about a widow who lost her two children in these woods and searched for them until she died there. Renoir stayed about a month, and came back the following spring for more.