Sunset

1879 or 1881

Renoir would have called this work an impression, a finished painting of a dramatic atmospheric effect rather than a sketch of a specific site. The sea is heavily worked with layers of color, the sky is painted in broad, rapid brushstrokes. The elevated viewpoint looks out across the water, where a small boat suggests a sense of scale and an indication of human presence.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	18 x 24 in. (45.7 x 61 cm) Frame: 23 1/2 x 29 1/2 x 3 1/8 in. (59.7 x 74.9 x 7.9 cm)
Object Number	1955.602
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Sunset, 1879 or 1881, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.602

Select Bibliography

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.. Exhibit Six: Impressionist Paintings.. Opened Sept. 18, 1956.. Tabler, Carol Forman. Illuminations: Images of Landscape in France, 18551885. Exhibition catalogue. Huntington, NY: Heckscher Museum, 1990. Kern, Steven, et al. A Passion for Renoir: Sterling and Francine Clark Collect, 19161951. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1996 National Gallery, London. Impression: Painting Quickly in France, 1860-1890. Nov. 1, 2000-Jan. 28, 2001. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, March 2-May 20, 2001; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Jun. 16-Sep. 9, 2001. 2000. (Clark only). de Kooning, Elaine. "Renoir: as if by Magic." Art News 55 (Oct. 1956) :pp. 43-45, 66-67. Barbara Ehrlich White.. An Analysis of Renoir's Development from 1877-1887. Columbia Ph.D. diss. 1965.. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms.. 1972.. William Seitz.. "The Relevance of Impressionism.". Art News, 67.. (Jan. 1969).. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Souren Melikian. "Rapid, Splended 'Impression.'" (Exh. rev.). International Herald Tribune, 4-5.. (Nov. 2000).. Richard R. Brettell. Impression: Painting Quickly in France, 1860-1890. New Haven: Yale University Press in association with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. 2000. Wilson-Bareau, Juliet and David Degener. Manet and the Sea. Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 20, 2003-Jan. 19, 2004; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Feb. 15- May 30, 2004; Van Gogh Museum, June 18- Oct. 10, 2004. Philadelphia Museum of Art. 2003. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011.

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Provenance

Madame Maistre (until 1899, sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, 19 May 1899); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1899–1921, transferred to Durand-Ruel, New York, 29 Mar. 1921]; [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1921–40, sold to Salz, 20 Sept. 1940]; [Sam Salz, New York, 1940–41, sold to Durand-Ruel, New York, 23 May 1941];¹ [Durand-Ruel, New York, in 1941, sold to Clark, 22 Sept. 1941]; Robert Sterling Clark (1941–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.| 1. Information from Durand-Ruel archives. See correspondence of 24 April 2001 in the Clark’s curatorial files.