Luncheon of the Boating Party

Great historical fiction. You could imagine yourself there on the balcony as Renoir painted his masterpiece! Well written with so much artistic detail...did not want it to end! So glad it was recommended by member of my book club! Have read several other books written by Vreeland...she certainly seems to know her artists, their work, and how the art and life of the artist are enter-twined!

It takes a lot of nerve for a novelist to revisit and deconstruct a major piece of art. The members of my book club had that reaction when we read Chris Bohjalian's The Double Bind, and I expect them to react the same way to Vreeland's take on Renoir, which we are reading now. Vreeland's book itself is anything but a work of art. But it helped me understand the painting better and appreciate more why Duncan Phillips and so many others consider it a masterpiece.Let me start with the good news. Vreeland tells a good story; she offers a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. Somehow, being able to name all the characters in the painting and clearly parse their basic relationships with one another is more satisfying than many of the technical and historical details presented in the (excellent) 1996 Rathbone et al. Phillips Collection catalog, Impressionists on the Seine, that Vreeland cites as a major source. Vreeland brings Renoir's painting style to life, helping the reader understand, for example, the impossibility for Renoir of designing a painting with drawn lines of graphite or charcoal without considering what colors go where. She somehow places the reader between Renoir and his canvas, between him and the palette and brushes in his hands. She can describe his landscape and still life settings in language that evokes the feathery, sensuous strokes and contraposition of unblended colors that Renoir and Monet worked with--I can almost feel the color-forms that she describes on my body. She captures Renoir caressing the canvas voluptuously with his brushes as though he were physically touching his model.But then human characters appear on the page, presumably with real personalities, real motivations and psychological experiences and, God help me, supposedly real dialogue and internal monologue. Arrrrrrgh! (as Aline might say) Show me, don't tell me! Put me in the moment that the Impressionists sought to live in rather than asking me to listen to an Acoustiguide curator tell me what he said, she said, he thought, she felt.... Put the footnotes out of sight; let the narrative grow organically from them rather than building it, fact on fact, like a paper-thin house of note cards. I feel like I am watching a biopic from the 1930s with a teenage Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney saying, "Let's put on a show!" Renoir hears Alphonsine suggest her terrace as the location for a painting and suddenly emotes, "Aha!! This is the answer to all my problems [which have conveniently just been laboriously laid out in outline form for the reader]. Let's make a masterpiece!"This happens a lot. When Vreeland wants to acquaint us with Montmartre, she has Renoir and Paul Lhote wander from bar to bar, purportedly seeking Angèle to model in the painting, thereby giving us a Zagat's-eye guide to the bars. When she wants to acquaint us with "la vie moderne," while Renoir paints, she has one of the models, Circe, ask the other models, as true "flâneurs de Paris," what they have seen in the last week that embodies "la vie moderne" for them--this now a Zagat's-eye guide to Paris. When Caillebotte mopes around about the infighting among the founding members of the Impressionist group, we know he's hurting because he says repeatedly, in more or less the same words, "I'm hurting," and Renoir responds, again in more or less the same words, "Sorry, I'm moving on." And the agony of resolving the problems of the quatorzième and anchoring the painting, over and over and over.... Ugh! I'd rather get the Acoustiguide and let Eliza Rathbone herself just TELL me about Montmartre, TELL me about "la vie moderne," TELL me that Caillebotte was hurting as Renoir moved on.... This is not art.And what about that rude, crude Angèle with a heart of gold, and that Jules, le très drôle Bardomatique? Yikes! In every scene in which they appear. They leave me embarrassed for the author.Did you notice how I slipped in a few simple French phrases above? Vreeland taught me that. She inserts bits of French that allow a reader (like me) who vaguely recalls her high-school French to read them and experience the quick rush of "Ooooo, I speak French!" (Please, no one mention Thomas Dolby's "Air Head.") Sort of like peppy hooks in a pop song that you can't get out of your head--the simple frisson of them catches you unawares and you dance for a moment. Until you get tired of doing it, over and over and over. Is this story happening in French or English? Do these cute tourist phrases connote anything more than a doggie treat to reward an aspiring Anglophone reader (like me) trying to feel a bit closer to French culture?So, fair warning. Don't ask too much of this book. It's not literature. It's not art. It is absolutely NOT, as USA Today apparently claimed "done with a flourish worthy of Renoir himself." Think teenage Judy Garland, not Émile Zola or Guy de Maupassant. As I got deeper into the book, Tom Wolfe came to mind--more journalism and travelogue than literature. But even taken as a journalist, Wolfe can give a scene a sense of depth and presence that Vreeland simply cannot. Take this book in the right spirit, as a simple, entertaining and informative, and often sensuous read. Vreeland taught me things I value about Renoir and his painting, and I thank her for that.For readers seeking a more serious novel about the creation of visual art, let me recommend Joanna Scott's Arrogance (1990), in which beautifully written fragments slowly accumulate, like the lines in a drawing, into a multiple portrait of the master Viennese draftsman, Egon Schiele, and his friends.

Impressionism has always been my favorite style of art. A print of Monet's Water Lilies has hung in my bedroom for years. But I've never really understood the obsession with Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party. After reading this book, I realize that I didn't truly understand Impressionism. This book brought home to me who these painters were, what their lives were like and how Paris influenced their lifestyles.This book only follows Renoir as he paints Luncheon, which is about a two month period. The painting is literally brought to life. Instead of being nameless boaters, I now know the names of the models in the painting. Susan Vreeland steps insides their lives for a mere two months and, yet, I feel like I know them now. I've never looked at a painting and thought about how hard it would be to hold that pose for hours. I've never thought of the posers as actual people. I was fascinated by the descriptions of color, by the discussions of how to pose and by the inner thoughts of Renoir as he tries to figure out how to make this painting come together.This book also described a pivotal moment for the Impressionists. In the past, they stuck together as a group. Monet, Sisley, Pissaro, Degas, Cezanne, Renoir and many others presented a united front against critics of their new style. Now, their group is starting to break apart. Many of the original group are going separate ways and the entire field of Impressionism is changing. Also, private dealers are about to become more important as opposed to submission based art shows. The entire art community is changing and this book is able to give a sense of the politics of art at that time.While most of the book is narrated from Renoir's perspective, several of the models he uses also have point of view chapters. Through them we see several sides of what life in Paris would have been like. Jeanne is a successful actress, Ellen is a mime in the Follies who dreams of being a real actress, Gustave is a part of the Impressionist movement who supports the others when they need it. Each character that has a chapter is brought lovingly to life. We see the impact many of these people have on Renoir and on his painting. This book is a snapshot of these lives but it shows so much. It is almost painful to watch Renoir struggle to pay for paint when I know that his paintings are currently some of the most well-known and renowned ever. I think the biggest compliment I can pay this book is that it changed the way I will look at art forever.

Vreeland has outdone herself in capturing the essence of the Impressionist movement, and the tensions, fluidity, and evolution of the art world during the latter half of the 19th century. To call this an historical novel would not convey the ability of Ms Vreeland to make the reader feel as if they are actually immersed in the action. Forget the idea of the lonely, starving artist, toiling away in some forgotten garret, creating masterpieces unrecognized, and unloved during his/her lifetime. This book reveals all the planning, equipment, materials and elements that must be assembled and orchestrated for an artist to realize their vision. I was riveted by this glimpse into the lives and minds of the painter, his friends, his models, his supporters and his detractors. Not to mention the effects of past and present political, economic, and social climates on the characters involved. Vreeland's skill in writing made me feel as if I were really there for the delicious dinners, the wine, the painting, the duel, watching the boat races, swimming, boating, or enjoying the walks along the river. This book was so enjoyable in so many ways. I could hardly put it down, but really hated to see it come to an end. If I could give it 10 stars...well, you get my drift!

The painting is one of my all time favourites - so evocative of a group of friends having a good time, that this book seemed like a great idea. The author clearly researched as far as possible the story behind the painting and the stories of the characters in it - many of which are known. Very well written.

Enjoy the flavour of France in the 1880s . I feel I know the painting and the artist better now.

Book in ok condition

I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I got to learn a lot of things about that certain era in France; the history, artists, paintings, critics, muses.I found a profound interest in artists and their paintings. Lively and entertaining. The French movie 'Renoir' inspired and made me more curious, leading to this wonderful book. The author does a tremendous job bringing historical fiction and making it interesting to the contemporary reader.

Me gustó saber sobre los Impresionistas y sus diferencias. Cómo entre ellos había amistad y al mismo tiempo celos y competencia.La historia es muy entretenida pero con demasiados personajes.