Young Girls

The Impressionist painters were famous, first and foremost, for their distinctively different way of painting. Renoir is no exception; in a whirl of short, separate brushstrokes he depicts two young women on a crowded Parisian boulevard. One of Renoir’s most powerful effects is that which is merely suggested, such as the gentlemen’s top hats or the half-erased figures in the upper left-hand corner of the painting. The rapidly “sweeping” brushstrokes and the uneven layer of paint accentuate the hectic mood of the Parisian boulevard: numerous people on their way to or from places, the human bustle and anonymity. Renoir is depicting La Vie Moderne.