Luncheon of the Boating Party Luncheon of the Boating Party Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881; ) is a painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Included in the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition in 1882, it was identified as the best painting in the show by three critics. It was purchased from the artist by the dealer-patron Paul Durand-Ruel and bought in 1923 (for $125,000) from his son by industrialist Duncan Phillips, who spent a decade in pursuit of the work. It is now in The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. It shows a richness of form, a fluidity of brush stroke, and a flickering light. The
The Boating Party bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum, but some works were left to the Havemeyer children and have since ended up elsewhere. Art historian and museum administrator Frederick A. Sweet calls it "One of the most ambitious paintings she ever attempted". His 1966 analysis focusses on the balance of the "powerful dark silhouette of the boatman", the angle between the oar and the arm that "thrusts powerfully into the centre of the composition towards the mother and child" and "delicate, feminine ones". Cassatt placed the horizon at the top of the frame in Japanese fashion. colorplate 75 35 7/16x46 1/8 in. (90