Roses in a Vase

In the summers of 1879 and 1880 Renoir kept coming back to Wargemont, the Normandy country house of Paul Bérard, a diplomat who had become his friend and steady patron. Renoir more or less had the run of the place. He painted the Bérard children, the coast nearby, and decorative panels for the rooms: game birds for the dining room, flowers for the library and drawing room. A bouquet like this one was where he let himself off the leash. With no sitter to satisfy, he could push the color as far as he wanted, and you can see it in the table, tipped up and seen from above while the vase faces you straight on, the surface breaking into patches that could be a tablecloth or just the roses falling back into paint. A year later he left for Italy, where studying Raphael would begin to tighten the loose handling you see here.