Patineurs au bois de Boulogne

The winter of 1868 was cold enough in Paris to freeze the lakes, and crowds went out to skate on the Bois de Boulogne, the big park on the western edge of the city. Renoir, then 26, went with them and painted it on the spot in the cold, catching dozens of small figures gliding and strolling across the pale ice under a grey sky. He disliked snow and painted it only a handful of times in his whole life, which makes this one of his rare winter pictures. The brushwork is fast and loose, closer to a sketch than a finished scene, the skaters set down in a few quick strokes of dark paint against the white.