Mother Anthony's Tavern

Mother Anthony's Tavern, painted in 1866 at Marlotte in the Forest of Fontainebleau, is one of Renoir's earliest major group paintings and a work of real historical significance: it documents the gathering of young painters at the Inn of Mère Anthony in Marlotte, a meeting place for artists working in the Barbizon tradition and for the emerging Impressionist circle. The figures shown are identifiable portraits — Sisley is among them — and the painting functions as a group self-portrait of a generation of artists at the beginning of their careers, before the Impressionist name or identity had solidified.

The large interior scene is painted with a naturalist directness appropriate to a real location and real sitters, the warm interior light cast by the tavern windows carefully observed. The composition is relaxed and informal, the figures arranged around a table in conversation, giving the work a genre-painting quality that distinguishes it from formal group portraiture. The paint handling is tighter than Renoir's later Impressionist work, reflecting his still-developing style.