Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
The Jardin d’Essai, Algiers, 1881
Oil on canvas, 31 7/8″ x 25 5/8″
MGM MIRAGE Corporate Collection (157) These paintings of The Jardin d’Essai, Algiers and the Piazza San Marco, Venice were painted by Renoir in the same year, 1881, recording his travels to Algeria and Italy. Each image shows a typical postcard view of popular tourist sights in the two cities, described in the loose brushstrokes and brilliant colors typical of Renoir’s experimental approach to landscape painting. In many ways the composition of The Jardin d’Essai, showing a shaded tree-lined path, resembles the natural setting of In the Woods painted four years earlier. In the case of the Algerian painting, however, the trees are not part of a natural forest but are planted at regular intervals along a lane called an allée, a popular feature of French formal gardening. In the distance, several figures promenade along the allée, the details of each figure described by only a few short brushstrokes. The exotic date palms that tower over the walkway signal that this is a very different place from the streets of Paris or the French countryside. Despite the foreign location, Renoir utilizes techniques similar to those in his other paintings to capture the effects of light on different surfaces.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
Piazza San Marco, Venice, 1881
Oil on canvas, 25 3/4″ x 32″
Source: www.philamuseum.org
