On 25 September 1869, Monet wrote, "I do have a dream, a painting (tableau), the baths of La Grenouillère, for which I have made some bad sketches (pochades), but it is only a dream. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who has just spent two months here, also wants to do this painting." Monet and Renoir, both desperately poor, were quite close at the time. La Grenouillère was a popular middle-class resort, consisting of a spa, a boating establishment, and a floating café. Optimistically promoted as ‘Trouville-sur-Seine’, it was located on the Seine near Bougival, easily accessible by train from Paris. It had also just been favored with a visit by Emperor Napoleon III, who was accompanied by his wife and son. In La Grenouillère, Monet and Renoir both recognized an ideal subject for the images of leisure they hoped to sell.
La Grenouillère
oil on canvas • 74.6 × 99.7 cm
-
Claude Monet