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Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 'Lakeside Landscape', about 1889

Key facts
Full title Lakeside Landscape
Artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Artist dates 1841 - 1919
Date made about 1889
Medium and support oil on canvas
Dimensions 47 × 58.2 cm
Inscription summary Signed
Acquisition credit Bequeathed by Helena and Kenneth Levy, 1990
Inventory number NG6528
Location Not on display
Collection Main Collection
Lakeside Landscape
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
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A description on the reverse of this painting identifies it as a landscape near Annecy, a medieval town adjacent to a large lake in the Haute-Savoie region of France. The exact location has not been identified, however. As was usual in his landscapes, Renoir has used strong colour combinations, offsetting the bright greens with contrasting shades of red (pinks, ochre and rusts) to increase the vibrancy and intensity of the pigments. Here he also seems to be mirroring the optical effects we experience when we look into the distance. Things that are close to us or in our peripheral vision – in this case, those grasses and the foliage on either side of the foreground – go out of focus as our eyes see beyond them. Instead of painting what is closer to the viewer in more detail, Renoir has used broad dabs of the brush to create an impression of blurring, tricking the eye into looking deeper into the picture.

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