Peninsula of Saint-Jean (Presqu'île de Saint-Jean)

Peninsula of Saint-Jean, 1888, painted at the coastal town of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera, reflects Renoir's increasing interest in the Mediterranean light and landscape that would eventually draw him permanently to the south. In 1888 he was still alternating between Paris, Normandy, and southern excursions, but his encounters with the brilliant clarity of Provençal and Riviera coastal light were shifting his palette toward the warmer, higher-keyed colours of his late period. This Barnes Foundation canvas shows the intense blues of the Mediterranean sea contrasted against warm coastal vegetation.

Mediterranean coastal light is captured through Renoir's warm, high-keyed palette—intense blue sea, ochre and green coastal vegetation, bright sky. The brushwork is free and atmospheric, with directional strokes in the water building reflective surface without precise description.