The Great Boulevards Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

Description of Pierre Auguste Renoir’s painting The Grand Boulevards

The painting by the famous French painter Pierre Auguste Renoir conveys the landscape of a street in Paris. The painting is filled with sunlight, illuminating the entire street and the people passing by.

The right side of the artwork depicts a massive, light-colored building. The painting is painted in the style of impressionism, so according to this stylization all objects are extremely undetailed. The windows and recesses of the building are drawn only with alternating light and dark strokes, and faint flecks of vegetation can be seen on the roof of the building. A succession of trees covers most of the structure. They consist of a duo of delicate yellow and green. The branches of the trees are depicted chaotically, with the tops pointing straight up into the sky. Expressive strokes make the plants look like tongues of flame pointing upward - reminiscent of trees from paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

In the central part of the painting is a cluster of people striving to go somewhere on their own business, walking along a bright paved road. It shows a woman with two children, two men making conversation, and a carriage with beautiful white horses. The crowd consists of a variety of people, varying in age and class. At the far end of the painting, strokes hinting at the crowd coming forward are outlined. Most of the left side of the painting is covered by the leaves of a tree with a thin trunk, the color scheme of which is dominated by dark green, smoothly flowing into gold and white.

In contrast to the group of trees on the right, the leaves and contours of the tree are drawn more clearly. Near the tree is a black lantern, the contours of which are clearer than the rest of the figures in the painting. On the right side of the work higher up there is another lantern. Placing these structures at a certain distance from each other gives the composition greater volume and depth of perspective.