Luncheon of the Boating Party painting, combining figures, still-life, and landscape in one work, depicts a group of Renoir's friends relaxing on a balcony at the Maison Fournaise restaurant along the Seine river in Chatou, France. The painter and art patron, Gustave Caillebotte, is seated in the lower right. Renoir's future wife, Aline Charigot, is in the foreground playing with a small dog, an affenpinscher; she replaced an earlier woman who sat for the painting but with whom Renoir became annoyed. On the table is fruit and wine. The diagonal of the railing serves to demarcate the two halves of the composition, one densely packed
Book and Author Luncheon was held at a variety of locations in Manhattan, most frequently at the Waldorf Astoria. Though it predominantly featured authors as speakers, it drew from a wide variety of notable figures during its 31-year run. Some of its famous guest speakers include Vladimir Nabokov, James A. Michener, Jane Jacobs, Robert Moses, Rachel Carson, John Kenneth Galbraith, Sammy Davis Jr., Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and Marian Anderson, among many, many others. It was hosted for the majority of its run by New York Herald Tribune Book Review editor Irita Bradford Van Doren. Book and Author Luncheon The Book and Author Luncheon