Танец в деревне

This is one of a pair Renoir made in 1883, and the split between them tells you what was on his mind. He painted a couple dancing in the city, all stiff formality, and this one in the country, where the same dance turns warm and a little chaotic. The man is his friend Paul Lhôte. The woman is Aline Charigot, who would become Renoir's wife, and she has turned her face to us with an open, easy smile while her fan drops from her hand. Renoir had just come back from Italy, where Raphael's clarity unsettled him, and he was pulling away from soft Impressionist blur toward firmer edges. You can see it in the crisp line of her cheek against the trees. On the table behind them sits the debris of a meal already finished.