The Skiff (La Yole), 1875 — Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Postcard

Painted in 1875 and held by the National Gallery in London, The Skiff (La Yole) is Renoir at his most luminous on water. Two young women in white drift out into the Seine at Argenteuil in a vivid vermillion rowing boat; the river breaks into shimmering ribbons of cobalt, sky-blue and turquoise around them; a white sailboat tips along the far bank where a pale country house and a railway viaduct catch the summer afternoon.

The painting is often cited as a textbook Impressionist canvas: pure unmixed colour for the skiff, broken reflections rather than drawing, leisure on a sunlit river. Even at postcard scale, the orange against blue carries.

A card for boaters, collectors of summer light, and anyone in need of a small piece of the Seine on their desk.

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