The Promenade

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

1870

Oil on canvas, Oil, Canvas

J. Paul Getty Museum

A man and a woman walk hand-in-hand through a lush, green outdoor setting. The woman wears a long white dress and a hat adorned with flowers, while the man is dressed in a dark jacket and light-colored trousers. A man and a woman walk hand-in-hand through a lush, green outdoor setting. The woman wears a long white dress and a hat adorned with flowers, while the man is dressed in a dark jacket and light-colored trousers. What Pierre-Auguste Renoir himself titled this painting is unknown, but La Promenade is in part an homage to earlier artists whom he greatly admired. Renoir had spent the previous summer painting outdoors with Claude Monet, who encouraged him to move toward a lighter, more luminous palette and to indulge his penchant for luscious, feathery brushwork. Here Renoir retained something of Gustave Courbet's green-and-brown palette