Line Color Form by Jesse Day

Author:Jesse Day
Format: epub
Publisher: Allworth Press / Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. (Perseus)
Published: 2012-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Formal Analysis Essay

Dance at Bougival: The Enchanting World of Renoir

Painted between 1882 and 1883, Dance at Bougival is one of the crowning achievements of Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s career. The piece exemplifies Renoir’s brilliance as a master of mood, deftly blending color and composition to engender not only an image, but an experience of human emotion. The subject of the painting is a man and a woman, dancing in a gentle embrace at an outdoor celebration. Although the interplay of tension and intimacy between the male and female subjects is captivating in itself, what is most remarkable about the piece is the way that Renoir’s delicate brush has rendered the couple as an inseparable part of the scene, seamlessly woven into their environment, vibrantly alive, eternally present in this moment.

Dance at Bougival glows with a soft and earthy pastel color palette. The dancing couple is awash in a sea of unsaturated hues; Kelly green, chartreuse, and mustard yellow brushstrokes mingle overhead with touches of baby blue and lavender, while streaks of tan and ochre scurry below. The couple themselves, who are positioned in the foreground and dominate nearly three-quarters of the frame, stand out because of the color of their clothing. The woman’s dress is a creamy tea-rose pink and the man’s suit is a blend of rich navy blue and charcoal. The two complement each other like the halves of a yin-yang, a perfect balance of male and female energy. However, unlike the yin-yang symbol, which is commonly depicted in harshly contrasting black and white, this couple is rendered in softer, more ambiguous tones that seem to flow into each other and melt into their surroundings. The one element that clashes with the easy harmony of the scene is the couple’s headwear. Her scarlet red bonnet collides with his saffron golden yellow hat to create an energetic focal point in the upper portion of the frame. Our eye is drawn again and again to the dynamic excitement that these primary colors elicit around the couple’s heads as the man leans in to steal a kiss, and the woman looks demurely away.

Along with the soft and sweet colors, Renoir’s treatment of line enhances the emotional impact of the piece. Unlike the rigidly defined lines that had been used for centuries in European oil painting to construct a convincing illusion of reality, Renoir’s lines are smudged and blurry. Around the border of the woman’s dress there is a shimmer of pale blue, approximating the movement of dance. The couple’s hands come together in a gentle melding of pigment. It is difficult to see exactly where one ends and the other begins. The figures in the background are rendered with broad brushstrokes; a few pink blotches convey rosy cheeks and a couple of brown smudges form a jacket. Meanwhile, the trees sway above the scene, blending into the sky as green and blue swipes of pigment overlap and are layered on top of each other. It would seem that the goal was not

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