Renoir’s remarkable productivity at this time is even more extraordinary since, as just noted, Luncheon of the Boating Party is one of his largest works. Durand-Ruel purchased it on 14 February 1881 for 6,000 francs, four times as much as the Charpentiers had paid Renoir in 1878 for a painting of similar size.108 Because the dealer thought it a masterpiece, he exhibited it widely: in Paris, first at a group exhibition on rue Vivienne from late April to late May 1881, then at the seventh Impressionist show in March 1882 and then at Renoir’s one-person show at his gallery in April 1883. Then Durand-Ruel sent it to America: to Boston, at the Foreign Exhibition in May–July 1883, and to New York, at the American Art Galleries and National Academy of Design from 18 April to 30 June 1886.
In February 1881, after having received such a high price from his dealer, Renoir aged forty felt comfortable enough to rent his own apartment. He retained his studio in rue Saint-Georges where his brother Edmond continued to live. Renoir found his own flat a few blocks north, at 18 rue Houdon. He invited Aline to live with him, but insisted they keep their relationship a secret from everyone but Edmond, who was sworn to secrecy. Since they had borrowed Edmond’s mattress, Renoir wrote to Aline in about March 1881: ‘you should send him his mattress so that he says nothing’.109 Given that Renoir had no intention of marrying Aline until he was financially solvent, he saw no benefit in revealing that they were living together. Indeed, having it known would make him appear as a bohemian and might harm his reputation.
While they were not married, Aline performed wifely tasks such as directing the maid, Cécile, who cleaned both at 35 rue Saint-Georges and at their new apartment. Since household chores were difficult, with no refrigeration, no indoor plumbing and no running water, it was customary, even for people of modest means, to have household help. Aline paid the maid with funds Renoir sent her from his travels. For example, in the same letter he wrote: ‘I’ll send you money along with the next letter.’110 Once, he instructed her: ‘Ask Cécile if the shutters are closed on rue Saint-Georges, so that the sunlight does not fade my piano…. Please request that Cécile not touch anything in the studio. There are a lot of things that are out of order, and I’d like to find them the way I left them.’111 In another letter he asked: ‘Is everything still going well with Cécile?’112 And later: ‘I received the letter in which you tell me that your maid serves you poorly. It is not hard for you to get rid of her and get a new one, since you are in charge of your actions, as long as you don’t exceed your budget, which never happens, anyway.’113
In 1881, besides supervising the apartment, Renoir was eager that Aline become more cultured and he suggested that she take piano lessons. He himself, like many cultivated men of his time, knew how to play the piano. He recommended that his piano be moved from rue Saint-Georges to their apartment and advised her: ‘Have them move my piano. You could start taking lessons. That’ll keep you busy. I’ll give you a note so that the concierge allows it to be picked up.’114 A few years earlier, Renoir had made a portrait of Mme Georges Hartmann, the wife of a music publisher, standing before a piano. Shortly thereafter, he painted Girl at the Piano.115 Besides suggesting piano lessons, two years later, he encouraged Aline to learn English, which he was also studying at the time. After they vacationed together on the English island of Guernsey off the coast of Normandy in 1883, he wrote to her: ‘I urge you to start brushing up on your English, we shall return next year.’116
In mid-February 1881, once he had set Aline up in his new apartment, Renoir went on a working trip to Algeria. Before he left, he completed the paintings he intended to send to the 1881 Salon and had arranged for his friend Ephrussi to submit them to the jury. They were paintings for which Ephrussi had found Renoir the commissions – two portraits of the three little girls of Ephrussi’s mistress, Louise Morpurgo, Comtesse Cahen d’Anvers. The year before, Renoir had painted their older sister, Irène Cahen d’Anvers.117 Early in 1881, before leaving for Algiers, Renoir had completed the portrait of the two younger sisters, Alice and Elisabeth.118 Upon arrival in Algiers, Renoir wrote to Duret: ‘I left immediately upon finishing the portraits of the little Cahen girls, so tired that I can’t even tell you whether the painting is good or bad.’119 Due to Ephrussi’s influence, Renoir hoped that these portraits would do better at the Salon than ‘the deplorable effect of my exhibit last year’.120 When Renoir left Paris for Algeria, he planned to return in one month but stayed two. Aline saved ten letters that he wrote her during this trip.121 None of her letters to him from this time have been found. Nonetheless, Renoir’s letters reveal that the couple was very much in love.
The painter had never before been out of the country. Since Algeria was a French territory, he had no problem with the language. He took the train from Paris to Marseilles and then crossed by steamship to Algiers, the capital. In letters, he expressed dissatisfaction, declaring the boat journey ‘very unpleasant’.122 He bemoaned: ‘three boring travel days’.123 A month into the trip, he still had difficulty adjusting and wrote Aline: ‘I am the worst of travellers and I am holding myself back from returning home.’124 He also missed her terribly and in one of his first letters said: ‘I was going to write you and ask you to come visit.’125 Instead, he promised: ‘If I come back here during the autumn, I’ll bring you to Africa.’126 And in another letter he reiterated this promise: ‘If I return, I intend to take you with me’.127
Travelling in February enabled Renoir to leave cold, grey Paris and go to warm, sunny Algiers where he could work outdoors. His primary motive for the trip was to improve his painting. As he later wrote, ‘[to paint landscapes] is the only way to learn one’s craft a little.’128 His first letter to Aline stated: ‘My dear little one, I arrived in good shape, and I will start working the day after tomorrow. I’m starting to look around to try to decide what I should paint first.’129 Later, he explained: ‘One has to manage not to waste time and some time is needed beforehand to get organized.’ And: ‘I am not allowed to return without bringing back some canvases.’130 Renoir’s dealer and patrons were eager that he paint. He sarcastically joked with Aline: ‘Try to write me something very unkind again. You see, since everyone writes me nice things to encourage me in my work, it would create a diversion.’131 Also in late February he wrote: ‘It’s very beautiful and I think I’ll bring back some pretty things. I have many choices since everything is beautiful.’132 Renoir wanted to paint, and from this trip Durand-Ruel purchased three Algerian landscapes and a seated Algerian girl, each signed: ‘Renoir.81’.133
Renoir stayed in Mustapha, a suburb of Algiers 3 kilometres (2 miles) away, and gave his address as ‘Helder Café, Military Training Area, Mustapha, Algiers’,134 informing Aline too, adding that he planned to travel within Algeria: ‘I have to take a trip to the South, either right now or later, in 3 weeks…. There is no railway. We will travel by horse-drawn carriages and it isn’t very fast.’135
To Duret he explained: ‘I am in Algiers. I wanted to check out for myself what the land of the sun was like…. It is exquisite, an extraordinary richness of nature…. I do not want to return home without bringing something back with me, no matter how small it is, and I only have one month; that isn’t much.’136 To Mme Charpentier he effused: ‘It is a remarkable country…what beautiful scenery…of incredible richness and what lush thick greenery. I will send you a drawing.’137 He explained to Ephrussi: ‘I will not bring back a lot this time; but I shall return because this is a beautiful country.’138 To Mme Paul Bérard, he wrote a long letter and urged her to take her husband to ‘come to see this wonderful landscape…. You must see the Mitidja plain at the entrance to Algiers. I never saw anything more sumptuous or more fertile…. It is remarkably comfortable, the nights are fresh, free of mosquitoes…. The Arabs are charming people…. I must admit that I’m quite happy and when one has seen Algeria, one loves it.’139 He also wrote directly to her husband: ‘Maybe I will be able to bring you something, a landscape or two.’140
To Aline, he described
a work in more detail: ‘Tomorrow I am starting a big painting of Arabs and a big landscape.’141 Algerian Festival at the Casbah, Algiers shows musicians in the middle of a large crowd with old Turkish fortifications in the background.142 He also painted the Bay of Algiers, whose exotic setting and characters, unlike Renoir’s earlier works, he hoped would help it sell.143 Besides landscapes, Renoir toyed with the idea of painting figures, but complained to Bérard how difficult it was to find models. Nonetheless, he did paint young Algerian girls.144 Probably, Renoir’s models were either French or Jewish since at that time Muslim women wore veils covering their faces.
Renoir’s brother Edmond was with him for part of the trip. He mentioned this in several letters to Aline: ‘[I’m] with my brother at the Helder Café.’145 Later: ‘I am angry with my brother who abruptly left Algiers without even letting me know and I am now alone with my thoughts.’146 Edmond was then working for the daily La France Méridionale in Nice.147 For a while, Renoir felt lonely and contemplated leaving. Missing Edmond, he wrote to Aline: ‘Try to send me some news from my brother.’148 Edmond decided to return to Algeria, but only a few days before Renoir’s departure. The artist informed Aline: ‘My brother will be here tomorrow.’149 Even while Edmond was gone, Renoir was not completely alone since he had several friends then in Algiers. For once, Renoir found himself in the position of lending money rather than borrowing it. He informed Aline: ‘As for Lestringuez, he’s the only one of my friends who hasn’t even borrowed a quarter.’150
Something in the description of his time with Lestringuez caused Aline to be suspicious of Renoir’s fidelity. Initially, Renoir had written to Aline: ‘His [Lestringuez’s] trip is paid for by the ministry and he’s staying in Algiers with a friend whom I don’t know; I haven’t seen him twice. The childhood friend with whom he’s staying is married and has a plethora of kids and I went to visit only out of sheer politeness.’151 Perhaps Aline, then aged twenty-two, knowing that a childhood friend of Lestringuez at thirty-four could have teenage daughters, felt that the ‘plethora of kids’ was a threat, or perhaps she thought the whole story sounded false. Conscious that her father had abandoned her mother, she was inclined to be sceptical of men’s behaviour, and wrote an angry response berating Renoir for not telling her the details of Lestringuez’s living arrangement.
In the next letter, Renoir assured her: ‘I didn’t talk to you about it because I had my mind on other matters and I didn’t think you would find it fascinating to know that he has a friend whom he visits for three months every three years, which deprives him of his yearly one-month vacation.’ Responding to her accusation, Renoir continued: ‘You should know that I have enough trouble making money from my paintings without fooling around like that. And it’s not fair to Lestringuez who is quite finicky and occasionally unbearable, but whose manners are impeccable and who is very proper.’ After all these explanations he continued: ‘You see, I do what I can to calm your anger.’ Renoir concluded by asserting that he went to bed every night at eight to get up the next morning at six.152 Even though she was eighteen years younger than he and was an unsophisticated woman from the country, Aline it seems was not afraid to express her concerns about Renoir’s faithfulness.
While Renoir was away in Algeria, Aline was considering an invitation from her father to travel to Canada. Victor Charigot, who was then living in Winnipeg, had written to her seven months earlier, urging her to come to Canada where, he asserted, she would earn more money sewing than she made in Paris.153 The usually decisive Aline could not make up her mind whether or not to go. Renoir knew about Victor’s letter and about Aline’s dilemma and, in a complete reversal of his prior paternal attitude, left the decision up to her. Thinking that she might go, Renoir requested: ‘Write me when you have to leave so I can manage to get to Paris beforehand…. Write me quickly and try to tell me when you are leaving. I’ll only be away for a month, but Heaven knows when you’ll be back.’154 Perhaps the thought of being gone indefinitely scared Aline, since in the end she decided not to visit her father.
While Aline decided to forgo an extended trip away from Renoir, he wound up staying in Algiers longer than planned. As his projected month came to an end, he realized that he needed more time to complete several paintings and delayed his return for a few more weeks. That Renoir stayed in Algiers for two rather than one month is typical of his nature of not being constrained by rigid plans. In many of his future trips he stayed longer than anticipated and changed his itinerary en route. Aline, who had expected him home in late March, often wrote asking when he would return. Renoir explained: ‘My dear girlfriend, I am very unhappy because I cannot abandon my two most important landscape paintings, and I’m waiting for two or three days of sunshine. If I could be done with them, I would be back right away. So wait a little longer. As soon as the weather is nice, which won’t be long, I’ll let you know which boat I’ll be taking. In any case, I won’t be home later than next week.’155 Affectionately, he soon promised: ‘My dear darling, I’ll do all I can to board on Sunday. It’s raining and I hope that tomorrow I’ll be able to work. I ordered crates [for the paintings] that are ready to go, so that I’ll have nothing more to do but pack up in case I’m late. No matter what, I won’t stay here longer than Tuesday. Too bad for my studies.’156 During his return journey, he took precautions to keep their relationship a secret: ‘Please warn Mr Deschamps that he will receive a telegram that I will send you from Marseilles without putting your name on it. You’ll understand what it means. I’ll simply indicate the time of my arrival.’157
Midway through April 1881, Renoir returned to Paris and had a joyful reunion with Aline. They had missed each other and were eager to spend time together. Renoir had planned to visit London after Algeria and before his annual summer with the Bérards in Dieppe, but since it was already mid-April, he decided to forgo London in favour of spending more time with Aline. He excused himself to Duret, who was expecting to meet him in London: ‘The weather’s great and I have models. That is my only excuse…. I wonder if you’ll easily swallow my behaviour that is akin to a pretty woman’s whims…. What a pity to be constantly hesitant, but that’s my basic nature and as I get older, I’m afraid I won’t be able to change.’158 This seems like a flimsy excuse since Renoir had committed himself not only to going to London but also to learning English. But, from Algiers, Renoir had already written to Duret that he ‘was obliged to abandon my English lessons that I will not resume until next winter’.159
This is one of many examples of Renoir feigning indecision when in fact he had changed his mind. Often in his life, Renoir tried to soften the impact of his changeability by claiming to be indecisive. That unpredictability prompted Pissarro to ask: ‘Who can fathom that most inconsistent of men?’160 In 1881, Renoir confessed to Aline: ‘I am and always will be uncertain.’161 The following year, he invited Aline to visit Brittany with him but added: ‘You know that I can change my mind twenty times. Brittany may end up being Fontainebleau.’162 After his return from Algiers, Renoir spent the next six months, often with Aline, painting scenes of daily life in the suburbs of Chatou, Bougival and Croissy, and a portrait of Aline that he signed, ‘Renoir.81’.163
Even though he had enjoyed being with Aline during the spring, Renoir was clear that his art and career always came first. When the summer came, he left Aline in their Paris apartment and went to the Bérards’ near Dieppe. Here he continued painting portraits for the Bérards and their Dieppe neighbours. Despite the importance of these portraits to his career, he sometimes became frustrated. In July 1881, he wrote to Aline: ‘My portraits are coming along with difficulty.’164 The next month he reported: ‘The weather is still grey. I am very bored. My models are horrible. I do not know from which angle to paint them.’165 This frustration is not apparent, however, in the lovely portraits he made of the Bérard children and of their Dieppe neighbours.166
During the summer of 1881, while Mme Blanche and her son Jacques-Émile were summering in Diepp
e, her husband was working in Paris. Jacques-Émile asked his mother if she would invite Renoir to stay with them in order to give him painting lessons. Mme Blanche initially agreed but on the very first day of Renoir’s visit, she changed her mind largely because of her prejudice against his lower-class status and her objection to his nervous temperament. As she later explained to her husband: ‘I told him [Renoir] that we won’t be ready [to have him stay here] for a long time, which is true; but, in addition, he is earning money, but spends it very freely; Jacques can only be badly influenced by him; he is so crazy, in his painting, in his conversation, without any education, very good, but rejecting everything that is sane; I think [by not having Renoir visit with us] I have done a great service to Jacques who is so clean, so meticulous in his studio; he [Renoir] needs pots of paint; he makes his canvases himself; he is not afraid of either rain or mud; he wants to do a large painting of naked children bathing in the sunlight; for that, he wants it not to be too hot, but still sunny; the children will want the weather to be neither windy nor cold, so that they can pose naked for two or three hours in the water. [Such a stupid idea] could take him far! If [his annoying behaviour] wasn’t so prevalent, and if it were only a matter of [staying here] five or six days, I might not have been so violently opposed [to his visit], since all his tics at the table and his conversation at dinner have made an unpleasant impression on our nanny and me. Don’t forget that we have no male servant, and Dinah, even if our house is ready, would not at all care to serve men, to wash their dirty and wet trousers, and clean their shoes, caked to the tops; because he is not a man to be stopped by the mud in our neighbourhood. Thus, there is no reason for us to let our nice, newly upholstered and carpeted rooms get soiled. You know, M. Bérard has men servants, rooms that won’t get ruined, and, surely, servants who don’t get in a bad mood as soon as one asks them to do the least thing beyond their routine.’167
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