Standing Woman and Seated Woman in a Landscape c. 1919

Here we have Renoir’s “Standing Woman and Seated Woman in a Landscape,” a dreamy oil on canvas where he is just feeling his way through the image. The marks feel provisional, like Renoir is testing out the lay of the land and only gradually committing to a particular form. Up close, you can really see how Renoir built the image with strokes of pure color. In the bushes behind the standing woman, little dabs of red, blue, and yellow come together, creating a shimmering sense of light. His paint application is pretty thin, more like a watercolor wash in places. He’s not trying to hide the process, more like he’s letting us in on the secret. This is a painting about seeing, and the way the eye jumps around, the whole image feels alive with movement, like a garden in the wind. Maybe you can compare it to Manet's looser brushwork? Both artists embrace the unfinished, reminding us that art is an ongoing conversation, an exchange of ideas across time, never really fixed or resolved, just open to possibilities.