After the Luncheon 1879

Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted After the Luncheon with oil on canvas, capturing a seemingly casual moment among friends, but it also encapsulates the social mores of late 19th-century France. Renoir, an Impressionist, often depicted scenes of bourgeois leisure. Here, we see the trappings of middle-class life: fine china, crystal decanters, and fashionable attire, revealing an insight into the rituals of a society that valued appearances and social graces. But it is the very ‘ordinariness’ of the scene that challenges academic traditions, which favored historical or allegorical subjects. Impressionism, in its focus on contemporary life, democratized art, making it relevant to the burgeoning middle class. To fully appreciate Renoir’s paintings we need to consult sources that illuminate that world. Contemporary magazines, fashion plates, and social histories can all deepen our insight into the cultural dynamics at play. Art, after all, doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it’s a product of its time, reflecting and shaping the society that produces it.