Luncheon of the Boating Party

Susan Vreeland, Karen White

eAudio - 2007

Bestselling author Susan Vreeland returns with a vivid exploration of one of the most beloved paintings in the world, Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party.Instantly recognizable, Auguste Renoir’s masterpiece depicts a gathering of his friends enjoying a summer Sunday on a café terrace along the Seine near Paris. An art collector, an Italian journalist, a war hero, a wealthy painter, a celebrated actress, and Renoir’s future wife, among others, share this moment of la vie moderne, a time when social constraints were loosening and Paris was healing after the Franco-Prussian War. Parisians were bursting with a desire for pleasure and a yearning to create something extraordinary out of life. Renoir shared these urges and took on this m...ost challenging project at a time of personal crises in art and love, all the while facing issues of loyalty and the diverging styles that were tearing apart the Impressionist group. Narrated by... more