Auguste Renoir The Two Sisters (On the Terrace)
From the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago

This exhibition in the series “Masterpieces from the World’s Museums in the Hermitage” presents Auguste Renoir’s canvas The Two Sisters. The painting, also known as On the Terrace, is one of the peaks of Renoir’s artistic career and one of the most popular items in the Art Institute of Chicago. The work was painted at Chatou, a small town near Paris and the location of the Maison Fournaise, an inn that became one of the artist’s  favourite haunts. Renoir and his friends perceived Chatou as an ideal leisure spot. In this sense The Two Sisters, painted on the same terrace as The Luncheon belongs among the works radiating a truly French joie de vivre, whose most talented eulogists the Impressionists were to become. It is believed that Renoir began The Two Sisters in April 1881, and in the spring of 1882 the painting was first presented to the public at the seventh Impressionist exhibition.

More

Director of the Hermitage at the opening ceremony of the exhibition

First visitors