About this work
My research confirms that Renoir's painting known as *In a Dinghy* is the same work as *The Skiff (La Yole)* (1875), held at the National Gallery, London — an oil on canvas depicting two women in an orange rowing boat on the Seine near Chatou. The title "In a Dinghy" is an alternate English translation of *La Yole*. Here is the product description:
The eye lands immediately on the boat — a vivid, almost jarring orange that blazes against the cool blues and greens of the Seine. Two women, elegantly attired, occupy the skiff, and that vibrant orange is a striking contrast against the cool blues and greens of the water and surrounding foliage.
The rower, dressed fashionably in a tilted hat, is not strenuously engaged with the task of rowing — this is leisure, not labor, and Renoir makes no mistake about it. Loose, impressionistic brushstrokes breathe life into the scene, conveying the gentle movement of the water and the interplay of light upon its surface.
A large detached villa stands on the bank, a white wall and gate leading to the riverbank, and just barely visible in the background, a steam train crosses a bridge — the modern world glimpsed, but not intruding. Renoir creates an effect of summer heat and light by using bright unmixed paint directly from the tube and by avoiding black or earth tones, and in placing the bright orange boat against the dark blue water, he deliberately used complementary colours, which become more intense when seen alongside each other.
Painted in 1875, *The Skiff (La Yole)* — known also as *In a Dinghy* — is an oil on canvas currently residing in the National Gallery in London.
The exact location has not been identified, but we are probably looking at the river near Chatou, some ten miles west of central Paris, which was a popular spot for recreational boating. The mid-1870s were a formative moment for Renoir: the first Impressionist exhibition had just taken place in 1874, and he was painting with the full conviction of the movement's early energy. The scene emphasises the character of the Seine as an unthreatening site of domesticated middle-class leisure, and conveys a sense of security and tranquillity, while the link with Paris is recalled by the unobtrusive trains passing in the background. The painting stands as one of Impressionism's most crystalline expressions of its central argument: that ordinary, sun-warmed afternoons deserve the same pictorial dignity as history or myth.
This is a painting that belongs somewhere it will catch afternoon light — a reading room, a dining room with pale walls, a hallway that turns from cool to warm as the day progresses. The skiff, vibrant yellow-orange, cuts through the cool blues
