Young Woman in a Garden Cagnes 1905

"Young Woman in a Garden Cagnes" was painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, capturing a scene in a private collection, with loose, gestural brushstrokes creating an atmosphere rather than a precise depiction. Renoir's approach to color here is just fabulous, look how he uses it to build form and space. The paint isn't too thick, but the way he layers it gives the impression of depth, as if the garden stretches beyond what we can immediately see. I keep coming back to the pink and white blooms dotted along the path, they almost seem to hover. They are full of vitality, like soft explosions of color, guiding our eye through the space. Renoir reminds me a bit of Bonnard in his ability to suggest an entire world with just a few dabs of paint. Both artists invite us to lose ourselves in their subjective experience, blurring the lines between seeing and feeling. Isn’t that what art is all about, anyway?