Lakeside Landscape
- Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Date: about 1889
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the "Lakeside Landscape" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Painted in the late 19th century, it's a beautiful example of Renoir's landscape style. The exact location of this painting isn't known, but it appears to be Annecy, a medieval town in France.
Notice how Renoir uses strong colour combinations here, contrasting bright greens with shades of red to create vibrancy and intensity. He also seems to be mirroring the optical effects we experience when looking into the distance. The grasses and foliage in the foreground are blurred, inviting our eyes to look deeper into the picture.
Renoir was experimenting with different brushwork techniques in this painting. For example, he used smooth, horizontal strokes to evoke the reflections on the lake's surface. The sky is described with longer streaks of blue, pink, grey, and white paint, which slant down from right to left.
Interestingly, aspects of Renoir's style here are reminiscent of his friend Paul Cezanne's techniques. This painting is undated, but its style suggests it was made around the late 1880s, possibly after Renoir visited Aix en Provence in 1888 or 1889.
See it in person
Lakeside Landscape hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
