The First Outing – 1875 Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

Description of the painting "At the Theater" by Pierre Auguste Renoir

This painting on the subject of theater is not the first among Pierre Auguste Renoir’s list of works. At the heart of the subject is a girl watching a theatrical performance, she is the largest figure on the canvas. Renoir liked to portray women in his works, so, each representative of the fair sex is depicted as a beautiful, gentle and young creature.

The bright, almost white face of the girl is directed towards the scene so that only her profile is visible to the beholder. The face expresses concentration and surprise. Slightly broken lines depict the young woman’s hair of a dark brown hue, mixed with blue, yellow, and orange strokes. The girl’s hair is tucked into a headdress consisting of white and blue strips of fabric. According to the peculiarities of Impressionism, the elements of the painting do not have a single color, but contain bold strokes consisting of a variety of shades. The girl’s dark blue dress, with bluish flecks, hugs her seated figure, and the sleeves widen toward the tassels.

In the background we can see a mass of onlookers, extremely indistinctly depicted. People’s faces and clothing are conveyed with careless brushstrokes. In the foreground, among the crowd dressed in black, we can see the face of a man whose gaze is directed toward the girl. Just above him can be seen a cluster of onlookers, whose contours are extremely indistinct, with figures stretching upward and curving ornately. A golden curved arc separates the spectators from the room itself. The abundance of colors, the peculiar curvature of the figures, the absence of clearly marked faces and poses convey the bustle, mobility and excitement of the audience before the upcoming performance, while the main character is depicted static but tense.