Two Sisters (On the Terrace), Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881

Renoir painted this delightful homage to springtime, youth and beauty on the terrace of the Fournaise family’s restaurant on the Seine River at Chatou, where six years before he had made Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise. This painting was already under way, when at lunch in Chatou with the American painter Whistler, Renoir spoke of postponing a planned trip to London: “The weather is fine and I have my models; that’s my only excuse.” The young woman in this painting wears the blue flannel dress favored by lady boaters at the time. She and the girl at her side were not actually related. An art dealer invented the title Two Sisters when he bought the painting.