The exhibition ‘A Bath of Colours – Renoir and Monet at the Grenouillère’ (Im Bad der Farben – Renoir und Monet an der Grenouillère) brings together two iconic works of Early Impressionism for the first time.
Two young painters – Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet – spent the summer of 1869 side by side, just outside Paris. They were both highly ambitious and sought to produce tableau paintings depicting real-life scenes.
They found real-life scenes in their frequent visits to a local bathing resort called La Grenouillère on the Île de Croissy on a branch of the Seine. The two artists produced six pictures of this dreamlike summer scene which would revolutionise European art history.
Renoir’s Grenouillère from the Oskar Reinhart Collection ‘Am Römerholz’ and its sister painting by Claude Monet from the National Gallery in London can now be seen side by side for the first time.
Monet’s small individual study of two boats from the Kunsthalle Bremen completes the ensemble. The exhibition also features other loans depicting moving water, inspired by the Grenouillère paintings. Reproductions of other works painted at the Grenouillère and historical documents will stimulate further discussion and are supplemented by contemporary recordings of the famous location.