Promenade sous-bois

Renoir painted this in 1910 at Les Collettes, the old olive farm above Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera where he spent his last eleven years. He had bought the place in 1907 for its ancient olive trees and moved south for the warmth, because by then rheumatoid arthritis had badly twisted his hands. In his final years brushes had to be wedged between his stiffened fingers. None of that struggle shows in a shaded woodland scene like this, dappled light through the undergrowth, painted in the loose, warm reds and greens of his late manner. The trees he walked among here still stand on the hillside, and the farmhouse is now a museum that keeps this canvas.