Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette

Working in oil on canvas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted this Bal du moulin de la Galette in 1876, capturing a typical Sunday afternoon at a popular dance garden in Montmartre. Working-class Parisians in their best clothes dance, drink, and eat galettes (sweet cakes) into the evening. Renoir's friends appear throughout the crowd, bathed in dappled sunlight filtering through the trees.

Renoir conceived the project in May 1876 and rented a studio near the mill to work from life. For the first time, a composition with so many figures was painted entirely outdoors. Vibrant, brightly colored brushstrokes capture both natural and artificial light. The painting measures 131 x 175 cm, an ambitious scale for plein air work.

The painting was shown at the 1877 Impressionist exhibition. It entered the Louvre after Gustave Caillebotte's death in 1894 and transferred to the Musée d'Orsay in 1986. A smaller version sold for $78 million in 1990.