The large size of this painting would seem to suggest that it was one of the society portraits Renoir was painting on commission in his early years, but evidence indicates that in this case he hired professional models to pose. When the artist exhibited the work at the Second Impressionist Exhibition in 1876, he entitled it A Promenade. Set in a bustling Paris park on a cold day, as suggested by the figures’ fur-lined jackets, the scene depicts a young woman—perhaps a nanny or an older sister—shepherding along two identically dressed little girls. The girl on the right is carrying a doll as fashionably dressed as herself. The loose brushwork portraying a scene of modern Paris life was not admired by all audiences, especially those still committed to the ideals of French academic painting. The exhibition at which this picture first appeared was described by one critic as “a cruel spectacle of works by lunatics.” Another, however, may well have been thinking of this painting when he said, “Renoir’s portraits are remarkable for their eyes, which seem to jump off the canvas.”
La Promenade
A young woman shepherds a pair of identically dressed little sisters along the path of a well-maintained public park. All three figures are outfitted for the cold and in the height of fashion. The eldest wears a blue velvet jacket with wide sleeves trimmed with red fox; the little girls wear miniature blue-green jackets trimmed with either swansdown or white mink. Further up the pathway to the right, Renoir has included no fewer than eleven additional figures and two playful dogs. La Promenade was the centerpiece of the artist’s submission to the Second Impressionist Exhibition in the spring of 1876. To his dismay, most critics ignored this ambitious figure painting and those who commented on it did so unfavorably.
Source: Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting. New York: The Frick Collection, 2012.
Deposited by Paul Paulin (1852--1937), rue Taitbout, with Durand-Ruel, Paris, on 25 May 1891 as Jeune mère (D7818); sold by Paulin to Durand-Ruel, 27April 1892, for 1,500 francs; sold by Durand-Ruel to Potter Palmer (1826--1902) on the same day for $1,300 (6,500 francs) and assigned Paris stock number 2140; bought back from Potter Palmer by Durand-Ruel on 5 December 1892 for $1,300 and given New York stock number 991. Sold by Durand-Ruel to Knoedler and Co., New York, for Henry Clay Frick, 9 March 1914, for $35,000 (including Knoedler's commission of $5,000); sold by Knoedler to Frick, 31March 1914, for $35,000, as Jeune mère et enfants; bequeathed to The Frick Collection, New York, 1919.
Source: Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting. New York: The Frick Collection, 2012.
