Meadow (La Prairie)

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

Loose, almost improvisatory brushwork animates the rhythmic undulations of the hill and shifting of the clouds. Toward the right, a woman and child stand waist-deep in the grasses picking flowers. The figures may be summarily treated, but they play a vital role, both giving a sense of scale and serving as light-toned accents that lead the eye up the picture and enhance the sense of space. The compositional structure and the distant hint of a little red house bear a close resemblance to a work painted in Argenteuil by Claude Monet, Wild Poppies of 1873. These formal parallels suggest that Renoir's landscape shows the same site.

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