On the Grass (Jeunes femmes assises dans l'herbe)

This 1873 Barnes Foundation canvas shows two or more young women seated in a summer meadow — an early example of the outdoor figure subject that Renoir would develop throughout the 1870s into some of his greatest works. Painted in the year of the first Impressionist group exhibition (1874), this work belongs to the formative phase of Renoir's Impressionist practice when he was discovering how to render sunlight falling on figures in landscape. The casual, informal poses — women simply sitting in grass — reflect the Impressionist commitment to modern leisure as subject matter worthy of serious painting.

Renoir uses dappled, broken brushwork throughout, the grass rendered in short, varied green and yellow strokes. The figures' white and light-coloured dresses are treated as vehicles for recording the play of sunlight. The composition is open and horizontal, with no strong compositional armature — allowing the light to be the unifying element.