Bal au Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre
"Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette" Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre also known as Le Moulin de la Galette is by the Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), which depicts the environs of the hilltop guinguette. In line with classical orthodoxy, Renoir composed his figures along a grand diagonal separating the foreground of the picture, populated by his companions, from l’arrière-plan. In his teaching manual "The Art of Colour" Johannes Ittens (1888-1967) describes how:
"Renoir painted this work in 1876 when he was 35. Vendors, seamstresses, clerks and artisans dance on a sunny afternoon at Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre in Paris; it is an outdoor festival flooded with light and colour. The entire painting is done in light and dark blue, green, a little yellow and pink. A sweet transparent buoyancy suffuses the atmosphere of the picture. The colours glow diaphonously."
Timeline
- 1879 to 1894 - The painting was in the collection of the French painter Gustave Caillebotte.
- 1896 to 1929 - Musée du Luxembourg in Paris.
- 1929 to 1985 - Musée du Louvre.
- 1985 - Painting on display at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
- 17 May 1990 - A smaller version of the painting, with the same name, was sold for US$78 million at Sotheby's in New York City, New York to Ryoei Saito, the honorary chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Company, Japan.
