Dance at the Bal du Moulin de la Galette thanks to Renoir!

Any visitor to the Musée d’Orsay suddenly taken with the desire for a crowd bath need only immerse themselves in contemplation of the Bal du Moulin de la Galette. This work created by Auguste Renoir in 1876 also offers a soothing experience, that of a Sunday afternoon at the guinguette: a typical scene from the late 19th century in Montmartre. A closer look at the formidable touch of the illustrious painter, which finds its place perfectly in one of the most fabulous Parisian museums.

A painting, an ode to joy

If the restaurant at the Moulin de la Galette still exists, it has undoubtedly changed greatly since Renoir used his talent to represent it in a respectable format of approximately 1.31m by 1.75m. The establishment – a large hangar – owes its name to the rye breads once made on site, called “galettes”, and to the mill situated right next to it. The undeniably festive atmosphere was also due to the many Parisians who liked to discuss or dance there on Sundays.

Beyond immortalising some of his friends present on the scene, the painter clearly aimed to transcribe the joyous atmosphere and childlike nature of this popular establishment, emblematic of Montmartre life in his era and participating in the beginning of the leisure era. There is a crowd and the effect of movement, of life bathed in both natural and artificial light, is rendered through coloured and vibrant notes.

The work is solidly built around a diagonal separating the background from the foreground and the dancers from the drinkers, which is an achievement in itself given the significant number of characters represented. The disparate light, as if dancing and materialised by yellow, blue and pink spots, thus seems to pass through the foliage of the trees and helps to brighten the scene alongside the clearly visible smiles on the faces. Rather than using blur to distinguish the depth of the painting, Renoir set himself the task of gradually reducing the size of the characters as well as the buildings, which could form a third plane.

Two particular details stand out: the table in the foreground, made up of regulars of the venue and Renoir’s friends such as the painters Norbert Gœneutte and Franc-Lamy, and the couple of dancers on the left, seeming to interrupt their dance to look at the painter and therefore the viewer.

It should finally be noted that the painting appears cropped, thanks to the characters whose bodies are partially missing on both left and right. The painter’s message is clear: he captured only a piece of reality and thus pays tribute to the grandeur of the event represented.

Renoir, an illustrious but tormented artist

Born in 1841 in Limoges, Auguste Renoir lived to the respectable age of 78, before passing away (in 1919 therefore) in Cagnes-sur-Mer. If he suffered from the most common autoimmune disease in France, rheumatoid arthritis, the artist nonetheless did not fall short and presents a varied collection of works, for a total of some 4,000 paintings!

And if in terms of painting, Renoir leaves us an impressive legacy of nudes, portraits, landscapes, seascapes, still lifes and genre scenes, the man was also a pastellist, engraver, lithographer, sculptor and draughtsman.

He is the sixth child of a family of seven and comes from a working-class family, with a tailor father and a seamstress mother. At the age of 13, his family arrived in Paris and Auguste Renoir began training as a decorator at the Lévy Frères & Compagnie porcelain workshop. He also attended evening classes at the School of Drawing and Decorative Arts for 18 years, before passing the entrance examination for the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1862 and joining Charles Gleyre’s studio, where he met Claude Monet, Frédéric Bazille and Alfred Sisley.

His career as a painter is marked by mixed beginnings, with works accepted at the Salon but not always praised by the critics – it should nevertheless be noted that his painting Lise à l’ombrelle exhibited in 1868 was positively received by a young critic named Emile Zola. The said Lise, Tréhot by name, was a lover who often served as a model for Renoir and who moreover gave him two children, Pierre and Jeanne, born respectively in 1868 and 1870.

His career took a decisive turn during a stay with Monet at La Grenouillère, on the island of Croissy-sur-Seine, where he painted outdoors, learned the games of light and to banish black to represent shadows. This was the beginning of his Impressionist period, of which the Bal du Moulin de la Galette is perhaps the most accomplished work, following on from the riverside guinguettes presented by the artist in 1869 and demonstrating his mastery of the techniques associated with this movement.

However, around 1880, Renoir’s canvases no longer sell and the artist decides to leave the Impressionist world (and exhibitions) to exhibit again at the official Salon. He manages to make himself known and receives an increasing number of commissions, notably for portraits. He asserts his new style based on line effects, recognisable in famous works like Déjeuner des canotiers painted between 1880 and 1881. Aline Charigot appears in this scene, who would become Auguste Renoir’s wife in 1890 and give him three more children.

The artist’s style would vary in the following decades, according to his travels and inspirations. He acquired a house in Essoyes in 1896, which became the Renoir studio. The whole family gathered there regularly until the painter’s death in 1919. Health problems would mark the last twenty years of his life, partly due to a bad fall from a bicycle in 1897 but also due to his illness. On the other hand, his art was in good health and above all, sold well.

Before his death, he was able to visit the Louvre museum one last time and contemplate some of his works from the difficult periods. It should be noted that a Renoir museum is situated in Cagnes-sur-Mer, where he spent his final years.

A word on the Musée d’Orsay

Having featured until 1894 in Gustave Caillebotte’s private collection, the Bal du Moulin de la Galette benefited from an exhibition at the Luxembourg museum and then the Louvre, before being entrusted to the Musée d’Orsay in 1986 at the time of its inauguration.

The transfer makes sense, the Musée d’Orsay presenting the most important Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection in the world, with nearly 1,100 paintings, alongside some 3,600 other works. Some evocative works can be found there such as Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe, Cézanne’s Les joueurs de cartes or even Degas’ La Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans.

The Musée d’Orsay extends its collections well beyond painting, and you can admire a plethora of decorative arts objects from the period 1848-1914, presented out of their context except for the Charpentier dining room of 1900. The collection testifies to the impact of the industrial revolution on the production of objects, particularly decorative ones.

Sculpture is not forgotten, with 1,598 works exhibited within the structure. This richness is explained notably by the fact that the 19th century saw the production of sculptures explode at the request of the bourgeoisie wishing to decorate their homes and of politicians desirous of anchoring beliefs. The world only turned away from this art after 1945, which saw a clear loss of interest with the exception of a few recognised artists such as Rodin. In spaces suitable and arranged for this purpose, the Musée d’Orsay allows many works conserved for a long time in the reserves of the Louvre, the Luxembourg Museum or the State to be brought back to light.

Let us not forget the over 45,000 photographs also exhibited in this exceptional museum, offering a prime place to the works of talents such as Édouard Baldus, Christian Bérard, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre or even Céline Laguarde.

A visit to the Musée d’Orsay can therefore be motivated by many desires, thanks to the diversity of works exhibited. The Bal du Moulin de la Galette nevertheless constitutes a masterwork and by itself, a reason to go there. For the anecdote, when the work was presented in 1877 at the third Impressionist exhibition, the art critic Georges Rivière, himself represented on the scene of the Bal du Moulin de la Galette, hailed his friend’s achievement as “a page of history, a precious monument of Parisian life, of rigorous exactitude”. Find it quickly on the upper level of the Musée d’Orsay, in room 32!