Summer's Day

c. 1879

Oil on canvas, 45.7 × 75.2 cm. The National Gallery, London

Two young women drift in a rowing boat on a lake in the Bois de Boulogne. They sit so close that the viewer seems to share the boat with them.

Quick zigzag strokes build the women, the water and the trees alike, so the whole surface flickers. Broken brushwork like this gave Impressionist pictures their sense of movement.
Almost certainly shown at the fifth Impressionist exhibition, April 1880, as The Lake in the Bois de Boulogne.
The same two women, in the same clothes, appear in a companion picture of the park.
The tree line sits at the top edge, so water fills almost the whole picture.
Part of Hugh Lane's 1917 bequest, shared between London and the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin.

Under Napoleon III, the Bois de Boulogne was remade with lakes, islands and winding paths. Its boating made it a ready setting for modern leisure.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain