Farm Courtyard 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted this 'Farm Courtyard' sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, but its current location in a private collection makes it harder to pin down its precise social context. We see an idyllic view of rural life, painted with the soft brushstrokes characteristic of Impressionism, a style that emerged in France in the 1860s. But the Impressionists, including Renoir, weren’t just painting pretty pictures; they were part of a broader shift in the art world. They challenged the dominance of the French Academy, which dictated what kind of art was considered acceptable, and where it was exhibited. Renoir and his colleagues wanted to paint modern life as they saw it, and that included the landscapes and people outside of Paris. Art historians use exhibition records, letters between artists, and critical reviews in newspapers, as well as the artwork itself, to understand the social and institutional histories of art. By examining these resources, we can better understand the role of art as something that is deeply embedded in its social context.