Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise
The terrace of the Restaurant Fournaise on the Île de Chatou in the Seine — the restaurant is still there and still serving.
maison Fournaise
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise — at a glance
- Artist
- Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
- Year
- c. 1875
- Movement
- Impressionism
- Place
- Maison Fournaise, Île de Chatou, west of Paris
- Viewpoint
- The restaurant's river terrace — the building survives as a restaurant and museum
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Now at
- Art Institute of Chicago
Overview
This is one of several pictures Renoir painted on the terrace of the Maison Fournaise, a riverside restaurant and boat-hire business on an island in the Seine at Chatou. It shows a young man in a straw boater and two women at a table with wine and fruit, dappled sunlight coming through the awning, and the river and its trees behind. It is oil on canvas and hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.
It is closely related to Renoir's much larger ‘Luncheon of the Boating Party’ of 1880–81, painted on the same terrace.
The story behind the painting
Scholarship The Île de Chatou, reached by train from the Gare Saint-Lazare in under half an hour, was a centre of the Sunday boating and bathing culture that the Impressionists loved to paint. Alphonse Fournaise ran a restaurant and hired out skiffs; his son and his daughter Alphonsine appear in several of Renoir's Chatou pictures. Renoir worked there repeatedly through the 1870s.
Where was Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise painted?
Scholarship The Maison Fournaise still stands on the Île des Impressionnistes (formerly the Île de Chatou), by the road bridge at Chatou, about 12 km west of central Paris. After decades of decline it was restored in the 1980s and now houses both a working restaurant and a small museum about the Impressionists and the boating era. The terrace, the balcony railing and the river view can be matched to Renoir's paintings.
What is in the painting?
Three figures sit close together at a white-clothed table on the covered terrace: a man in a striped jersey and straw hat leaning back, a woman lifting a glass, another turned away. On the table are a wine bottle, glasses, a fruit bowl and the debris of a meal. Behind the striped awning and the balcony rail, the Seine glints between trees, with a boat and the far bank.
Look closely
The straw boater
The man's flat-topped straw hat and striped jersey are the uniform of the Seine boating crowd.
The remains of the meal
Wine bottle, glasses and a fruit bowl on the white cloth — the lunch is nearly over.
The striped awning
It filters the sunlight and frames the top of the scene.
The river through the rail
Beyond the balcony the Seine glints between trees, painted in loose bright strokes.
Analysis
Composition & perspective
A close, informal group seen from table height, with the striped awning and the balcony rail framing the river beyond.
Scholarship Renoir crops in tight on the table so the viewer seems to share it. The horizontal of the balcony rail and the diagonal of the awning hold the figures against the loose, bright landscape of the river, which is painted much more freely than the people.
Colour and light
Warm flesh tones and white cloth under a sun-filtered awning, against the cool blue-green of the river.
Broken sunlight falls through the awning onto the table and the sitters' faces and hands; Renoir touches in the highlights in pink, cream and pale blue. The river behind is all quick green and blue strokes, sparkling and out of focus.
History & provenance
The painting passed through French and American collections and is in the Art Institute of Chicago.
Sources
- Art Institute of Chicago — collection entry for Auguste Renoir, ‘Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (The Rowers' Lunch)’ (c. 1875)
- Musée Fournaise, Chatou — history of the Maison Fournaise and the Île des Impressionnistes
Frequently asked
Is the Restaurant Fournaise a real place?
Yes. The Maison Fournaise still stands on the island in the Seine at Chatou, about 12 km west of central Paris. It was a restaurant and boat-hire business that the Impressionists frequented in the 1870s.
Can you go there today?
Yes. After being restored in the 1980s the building houses a working restaurant and a small museum about the Impressionists and the boating era; the island is now called the Île des Impressionnistes. The terrace and river view can be matched to Renoir's paintings.
Who are the people in the picture?
Members of the Sunday boating crowd at Chatou. Renoir did not always name his Fournaise sitters, but the Fournaise family — the owner's son and his daughter Alphonsine — appear in several related works.
How does it relate to ‘Luncheon of the Boating Party’?
It is an earlier, smaller treatment of the same subject and the same terrace. Renoir returned to paint the large ‘Luncheon of the Boating Party’ there in 1880–81.
Where is the painting now?
In the Art Institute of Chicago.
Related paintings
Luncheon of the Boating Party
1880
Renoir's large 1880–81 masterpiece, painted on the same Fournaise terrace with the same river behind.
Bal du moulin de la Galette
1876
Renoir's other great picture of Parisians at leisure in dappled light, from 1876.
Dance at Bougival
1883
Renoir dancing at another Seine-side spot a short way downstream.
Current display status
Currently on loanMore by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Bal du moulin de la Galette
Luncheon of the Boating Party
Also connected to maison Fournaise