The Dance at Bougival (1890), celebrates Auguste Renoir’s joy in depicting life’s pleasures.  Renoir, an Impressionistic painter, showed the happier aspects of working-class people’s daily lives.  Looking beyond the hard work and drudgery, which others chose to disregard, Renoir showed the little bit of charm and excitement these people shared.  He could do so because he too was born a member of the working class. The Dance at Bougival shows the woman as the main character, as was typical of Renoir’s works.  He loved to display the sensuality and sexuality of women through his pieces, like At the Concert (1880), and The Loge (1874). 

Like most of the 25 etchings he created, Renoir made The Dance at Bougival because his friends encouraged him to try his hand at the graphic arts.  This particular work was designed after Renoir’s famous painting, Dancer at Bougival (1883). The painting was “handled with lightness,” much like the etching, which was done with a fine point. 

The Dance at Bougival is actually a soft-ground etching, or vernis mou.  This technique involves drawing with a pencil on a sheet of paper placed on a copperplate coated with an extremely soft, sticky ground. The ground adheres to the paper wherever the pencil passes, leaving the metal exposed in broad, soft lines. The plate is exposed to acid and, when printed, yields results similar to pencil or chalk drawings. 
 
 

RELATED LINKS

Renoir  Website from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, that contains many more Renoir images.