Renoir - Bouquet on a Theater Seat

This is Renoir's Bouquet on a Theater Seat. Painters of his era often turned to the theater as a subject, usually capturing its glamour, the actors on stage, or the audience watching. Renoir, uncharacteristically, chose a simple bouquet of flowers instead.

The only clue to the theatrical setting is the seat the flowers rest on—a genuinely fresh choice of subject for the time. Look closely and you'll see each petal rendered with delicate detail, conveying the bouquet's fullness and freshness, with patches of thickly applied paint that make the flowers feel all the more lush.