Bal du moulin de la Galette

Bal du moulin de la Galette(commonly known asDance at Le moulin de la Galette) is an 1876 painting by French artistPierre-Auguste Renoir.
It is housed at theMusée d'Orsayin Paris and is one ofImpressionism's most celebrated masterpieces.The painting depicts a typical Sunday afternoon at the originalMoulin de la Galettein the district ofMontmartrein Paris. In the late 19th century, working-class Parisians would dress up and spend time there dancing, drinking, and eatinggalettesinto the evening.Like other works of Renoir's early maturity,Bal du moulin de la Galetteis a typically Impressionist snapshot of real life. It shows a richness of form, a fluidity of brush stroke, and a flickering, sun-dappled light.
From 1879-94 the painting was in the collection of the French painterGustave Caillebotte; when he died it became the property of the French Republic as payment fordeath duties. From 1896-1929 the painting hung in theMusée du Luxembourgin Paris. From 1929 it hung in theLouvreuntil it was transferred to the Musée d'Orsay in 1986.
Renoir painted a smaller version of the picture (78 × 114 cm) with the same title. The painting is now believed to be in a private collection in Switzerland. Apart from their size, the two paintings are virtually identical, although the smaller is painted in a more fluid manner than the d'Orsay version. One is presumably a copy of the original, but it is not known which is the original. It is not even known which was the one first exhibited at the Salon of 1877, because though it was catalogued and given favourable attention by critics, its entry did not indicate the size of the painting.
For many years it was owned byJohn Hay Whitney. On May 17, 1990, his widow sold the painting for US$78 million atSotheby'sin New York City toRyoei Saito(Saitō Ryōei), the honorary chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Company, Japan.
At the time of sale, it was one of the top twomost expensive artworks ever sold, together with van Gogh'sPortrait of Dr. Gachet, which was also purchased by Saito. Saito caused international outrage when he suggested in 1991 that he intended to cremate both paintings with him when he died. However, when Saito and his companies ran into severe financial difficulties, bankers who held the painting ascollateralfor loans arranged a confidential sale through Sotheby's to an undisclosed buyer.Although not known for certain, the painting is believed to be in the hands of aSwisscollector.
Renoir conceived his project of painting the dancing atLe Moulin de la Galettein May 1876 and its execution is described in full by his civil servant friend Georges Rivière in his memoirRenoir et ses amis.Renoir needed to set up a studio near the mill. A suitable studio was found at an abandoned cottage in the rue Cortot with a garden described by Rivière as a "beautiful abandoned park".Several of Renoir's major works were painted in this garden at this time, includingLa balançoire (The Swing). The gardens  and its buildings have been preserved as theMusée de Montmartre.
Rivière identified several of the personalities in the painting. Despite Renoir's habit of distributing a sought after fashionable hat of the time amongst his models (the straw bonnet with a wide red ribbon top right is an example of this hat, called atimbale), he was unable to persuade his favourite sixteen-year-old modelJeanne Samary, who appears inLa balançoire, to pose  as principal for the painting (in fact she was conducting an affair with a local boy at the time). It is her sister Estelle who poses as the girl wearing a blue and pink striped dress. These two girls came toLe Moulinevery Sunday with their family; with two younger sisters barely taller than the tables, and their mother and father, properly chaperoned by their mother (entry was free for girls atLe Moulinand not all were models of virtue). Beside her is a group consisting of Pierre-Franc Lamy andNorbert Goeneutte(also appearing inLa balançoire), fellow painters, as well as Rivière himself. Behind her, amongst the dancers, are to be foundHenri Gervex, Eugène Pierre Lestringuez and Paul Lhote (who appears inDance in the Country). In the middle distance, at the centre of the dance hall, the Cuban painter Don Pedro Vidal de Solares y Cardenas is depicted in striped trousers, dancing with the model called Margot (Marguerite Legrand). Apparently, the exuberant Margot found Solares too reserved and was endeavouring to loosen him up by dancing polkas with him, and teaching him dubious songs in the local slang. She was to die of typhoid just two years later, Renoir nursing her until the end, paying both for her treatment and her funeral.
Rivière describes the painting as executed on the spot and not without difficulty, as the wind constantly threatened to blow the canvas away. This has led some critics to speculate that it was the larger d'Orsay painting that was painted here, as the smaller would have been easier to control. On the other hand, the smaller is much the more spontaneous and freely worked of the two, characteristic ofen plein airwork.