Two Women in Blue Blouses 1919

Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted these two women in blue blouses with oil on canvas, but we don’t know when. Look at the way the forms are built up out of feathery strokes, like he’s knitting with paint. It’s all sensation, and process. You can almost feel the sun on your skin looking at the painting’s surface. The colours are juicy, mixing pinks, yellows, and blues with the occasional dash of red. The paint isn’t too thick, but there’s definitely a texture there. I see quick flicks of the brush, especially around the hats and the edges of their blouses. Notice the way the light catches the curves of their faces and arms. It's like Renoir is trying to capture the feeling of a warm day rather than a perfect likeness. Renoir reminds me of Fragonard, but with less posing and more doing. His work, like Fragonard’s, feels like an ongoing conversation about how to represent the fleeting beauty of life, reminding us that art is a verb, not just a noun.