''Two Sisters'' or ''On the Terrace'' is an 1881

oil-on-canvas Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

painting by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The dimensions of the painting are 100.5 cm × 81 cm. The title ''Two Sisters'' (french: Les Deux Sœurs) was given to the painting by Renoir, and the title ''On the Terrace'' (french: Sur la terrasse) by its first owner

Paul Durand-Ruel Paul Durand-Ruel (31 October 1831, Paris – 5 February 1922, Paris) was a French art dealer associated with the Impressionists and the Barbizon School. Being the first to support artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste ...

. Renoir worked on the painting on the terrace of the ''

Maison Fournaise The Maison Fournaise (; "House of Fournaise") is a restaurant and museum located on the Île des Impressionnistes, a long island in Seine river in Chatou, west of Paris. History In 1857, Alphonse Fournaise bought land in Chatou to open a boat ...

'', a restaurant located on an island in the Seine in

Chatou Chatou () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Chatou is a part of the affluent suburbs of western Paris and is on the northwest side of the Seine river about from the city's center. Hi ...

, the western suburb of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. The painting depicts a young woman and her younger sister seated outdoors with a small basket containing balls of wool. Over the railings of the terrace one can see shrubbery and foliage with the River Seine behind it. In 1880 to 1881, shortly before working on ''Two Sisters'', Renoir worked in this particular location on another well-known painting, ''

Luncheon of the Boating Party ''Luncheon of the Boating Party'' french: Le Déjeuner des canotiers is an 1881 painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Included in the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition in 1882, it was identified as the best painting in the show ...

''. Jeanne Darlot (1863—1914), a future actress who was 18 years old at the time, was posing as "the elder sister." It is unknown who posed as the "younger sister," but it is stated that the models were not actually related. Renoir began work on the painting in April 1881 and on July 7, 1881, it was bought by the art dealer,

, for 1,500

francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...

. The painting was presented for the first time to the public at the 7th Impressionist exhibition in the spring of 1882. In 1883 it was known to be in the collection of Charles Ephrussi, an art collector and a publisher, but in 1892 the painting was returned again to the collection of the Durand-Ruel family. In 1925, the painting was sold to

Annie Swan Coburn Annie Swan Coburn (1856–1932) was an American art collector and patron. She collected American art and French Impressionist paintings. Upon her death she left artworks to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Fogg Museum at Harvard University ...

from Chicago for $100,000. After her death in 1932 the painting was bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, where it has remained since 1933.

References

External links

Google Art Project: ''Two Sisters (On the Terrace)'' — Auguste Renoir (1881)

Encyclopædia Britannica.com: ''Two Sisters (On the Terrace)''

The Art Institute of Chicago.edu: Video: ''Renoir's Two Sisters (On the Terrace)'' + CD ''With Open Eyes''

The Art Institute's Digital Catalogues: ''Two Sisters (On the Terrace)''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Two Sisters (On the Terrace) Portraits by Pierre-Auguste Renoir Portraits of women 1881 paintings 19th-century portraits Paintings in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago Paintings of children Water in art