Speakasso › Paintings › Luncheon of the Boating Party
Luncheon of the Boating Party
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1880
A party of friends is finishing lunch on the terrace of the Maison Fournaise restaurant on the Seine outside Paris: bottles, bunches of grapes and half-emptied glasses crowd the table. At left a girl in a straw hat plays with a little dog; she is Aline Charigot, Renoir's future wife. At right, in a vest and boater, sits the painter Caillebotte. Renoir worked on the canvas on location for months, summoning acquaintances one by one. Landscape, still life and portraiture in a single scene, carried off with ease.
What is in the painting
- Table after lunch. Tablecloth, bottles, grapes and glasses flooded with sun.
- Striped awning. An orange-and-white canopy over the terrace.
- River beyond the rail. Sailing boats and a bridge show through the foliage.
Did you know? The Maison Fournaise in Chatou still operates, and you can eat on the very same terrace.
About the painting
- Artist
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
- Year
- 1880
- Style
- Impressionism
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 130 × 173 cm
- Where to see it
- The Phillips Collection, Washington
How to describe it in Speakasso
In Speakasso you describe the painting in your own words and an AI draws it again. These words are forbidden in this round — each one costs 15 points:
A description that scores high
Friends relax after a summer meal on a sunny riverside balcony under an orange-and-white striped awning. In front, a white-clothed table holds glasses, grapes and dark wine flasks. On the left, a young woman in a straw bonnet with blooms plays with a tiny fluffy pup; on the right, a man in a white sleeveless top and a straw boater straddles a chair. Sails and greenery show beyond the railing. Warm dappled light, feathery brushstrokes.
The tricky part: Call the headwear a straw bonnet and a straw boater, and the pet a tiny fluffy pup she holds on the table.
The method behind it: what is painted first, then where things are, then colour and light, then the style. Read the full guide
