Focus on Skaters in the Bois de Boulogne and analyze the Description.
Renoir, who was then 26 years old, painted Skaters in the Bois de Boulogne in the public park of Bois de Boulogne in Paris en plein air during the cold winter month of January 1868.  Newspaper accounts of the time recorded freezing temperatures allowing people to walk across the Seine and ice skate on rivers and streams.  Due to Renoir's dislike of cold temperatures, it is one of the few winter landscapes he completed aside from a few minor studies. At the time of the painting, the park itself was relatively new, with construction beginning in 1852 under a public works program led by Georges-Eugène Haussmann under the direction of Napoleon III. Under Haussmann's renovation of Paris, the Bois de Boulogne was completed in 1858.The scene is thought to have been painted near the Lac pour le patinage (Skating Lake), an artificial lake. Renoir chose the park because he preferred painting crowds. The painting has an unfinished, sketch-like quality to it, in the style of a pochade, but the brushwork is bold and the composition fully realized.  The scene represents the western part of the park, using an elevated perspective. The theme evokes older Dutch ice skating landscapes made popular by painters like Hendrick Avercamp (1585–1634). Several dogs can be seen in the work, reflecting Renoir's thematic interest in the lives of the Parisian bourgeoisie. The motif of social leisure depicted in the piece would come to define Renoir's subsequent work.
Georges-Eugène Haussmann Hendrick Avercamp winter landscape Seine ice skating pochade Haussmann's renovation of Paris en plein air composition Bois de Boulogne Napoleon III