by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 2, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Rowboats crowd the foreground water, while a line of visitors crosses and gathers around the bathing resort beyond them. A small structure sits among trees at the left, and a bright opening in the foliage carries the eye toward the distant river. This is Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s La Grenouillère of 1869 in the Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz” [1], Winterthur, Switzerland.
The “II” in this page’s address is a local way to keep two Renoir routes apart. It is not the collection’s title and does not prove that this was the second version painted. Renoir and Claude Monet made several canvases at La Grenouillère in 1869. The Winterthur painting is a separate object from Renoir’s better-known Stockholm La Grenouillère [2], even though the two show the same place and year.
At a glance
- ArtistPierre-Auguste Renoir
- Owner titleLa Grenouillère
- Date1869
- Medium and sizeOil on canvas, 65 × 92 cm according to the owner
- CollectionOskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz”, Winterthur, Switzerland
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Watch on YouTubeThe owner’s collection page [1] identifies the work and gives its dimensions. Its 2023 exhibition material [3] says the canvas has been a cornerstone of the Reinhart collection since 1931. That is the documented collection milestone used here; the accessible owner summary does not supply a full earlier ownership chain.
A view across boats, walkway and crowd
The nearest boats make large, dark shapes against the water. Their curving sides and narrow pointed ends direct attention toward the busy middle distance. Renoir does not give each hull the same finish: some edges are crisp enough to hold the composition, while others break into reflections. A viewer can begin at the lower left boat, follow the row of craft toward the centre, then travel along the light walkway to the people at the right.
The visitors are small in relation to the canvas, but they create the painting’s social centre. Dresses, jackets and hats appear as quick areas of cream, blue, black and warmer colour. Some people stand near one another; others seem to be moving between the shore and the bathing structures. The painting does not identify them by name or turn any one figure into a formal portrait. Their grouping gives a sense of public activity in a place designed for leisure.
At the left, trees cast a broad area of shade over the riverside structure. At the right, the background opens into pale sky and distant water. The contrast between shade and brightness creates depth without requiring rigid architectural lines. The walkway divides the composition across its middle, while the broken reflections below carry light back into the foreground. Renoir makes the water active: short light marks cut across darker blue and green passages, so the surface seems to move around the boats.
The painting becomes especially interesting when seen at two distances. From afar, the boats, people and tree canopy hold together as a legible resort scene. Up close, water and foliage turn into small, separate strokes. The Oskar Reinhart Collection’s 2023 exhibition account [4] emphasises the artists’ rapid, comma-like marks and their attention to visitors, shifting light and moving water. In this Winterthur view, the close-packed crowd and broad foreground give those aims a particular arrangement.
What was La Grenouillère?
La Grenouillère was a popular boating and bathing resort on a branch of the Seine west of Paris, near Bougival and the Île de Croissy. Visitors could come for a restaurant, the water and the company of other day-trippers. The Nationalmuseum’s account of Renoir’s separate Stockholm painting [2] describes the place as a recreational site used by Parisian working- and middle-class visitors. The local Musée de la Grenouillère [5] records the barges, changing facilities and later history of the site.
Renoir and Monet worked there in 1869, often described as painting side by side while testing how to represent a crowded modern resort in changing daylight. Their subject was neither a remote landscape nor a historical story: the boats, bathers and public gathering place were part of contemporary life. The Reinhart collection’s exhibition research says the pair made a group of six La Grenouillère pictures in total. A count of works from this campaign does not turn the local “II” label into a date sequence for Renoir’s Winterthur canvas. Oskar Reinhart Collection, A Bath of Colours. [4]
The later fame of Impressionism can make the scene look comfortably familiar. The Nationalmuseum instead stresses how new both the subject and the short, rapidly handled strokes were in 1869. Renoir’s interest here was the encounter between people, boats, shade and glistening water. The painting gives modern leisure the scale and attention of a large landscape rather than presenting it as a minor anecdote.
Three related paintings, three different objects
A useful comparison is Renoir’s Stockholm La Grenouillère, Nationalmuseum NM 2425. Its owner gives 66.5 × 81 cm, a different shape and size from Winterthur’s 65 × 92 cm. The Stockholm composition centres the small “Camembert” island and its connecting walkway. In the Winterthur view, boats and a wider, crowded stretch of riverside take up more of the image. Both belong to the same 1869 campaign, but their ownership records and compositions identify separate canvases. Nationalmuseum record [2]; Reinhart owner record. [1]
Monet’s Bathers at La Grenouillère in the National Gallery, London [6] is another separate 1869 canvas. It too looks across rowboats toward a walkway and people. The London museum notes that Monet treated the moving water and crowd with lively, broken marks; the Reinhart collection paired its Renoir with that Monet canvas in its 2023 exhibition, allowing direct comparison. Their shared subject and close views are evidence of a joint experiment, not evidence that the two canvases were one work or that either painter merely copied the other. Reinhart exhibition release. [3]
A different Monet La Grenouillère is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. [7] The Met specifically says that its composition is close to Renoir’s Stockholm painting. This is another reason to name the collection and view when comparing works: “Renoir and Monet at La Grenouillère” can refer to several related pairs.
In the Reinhart collection
Oskar Reinhart’s Winterthur collection has held this Renoir since 1931, according to its own exhibition statement. In 2023 the collection displayed it with Monet’s London canvas in A Bath of Colours: Renoir and Monet at the Grenouillère. The owner described the pairing as bringing the two works together for the first time. That exhibition is a documented later moment in the painting’s life; it does not establish the unrecorded order in which the 1869 pictures were painted. Oskar Reinhart Collection press release. [3]
The Winterthur collection page should be checked for present display arrangements before visiting. For image and object identification, the clear markers are the 65 × 92 cm canvas, the densely packed boats and right-hand crowd. These keep it distinct from the Stockholm Renoir and both Monet works.
Looking again
Follow the nearest boat toward the bright strip of walkway. Pause among the small visitors, then return through the tree shade to the reflections below. Renoir’s scene is busy without a single central protagonist. Boats, figures and water each have a different kind of movement, and the quick brushwork lets the whole place feel in use rather than frozen.
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Questions about La Grenouillère II
No. The Winterthur owner calls the painting La Grenouillère. “II” is used in this website’s address to distinguish another Renoir page; it is not a proven position in the painting sequence.
The Oskar Reinhart Collection dates it 1869, when Renoir and Monet painted several views of the bathing resort.
No. The Winterthur painting measures 65 × 92 cm and puts boats and a broad crowded bank at the centre of its design. The Nationalmuseum’s separate Stockholm Renoir is NM 2425, 66.5 × 81 cm.
Yes. Monet worked at La Grenouillère in 1869. His canvases in London and New York are separate works with different views; the London painting was exhibited beside the Winterthur Renoir in 2023.
It belongs to the Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz” in Winterthur, Switzerland. Check the collection for current display details.
Discussion
What do you notice when you return to Renoir’s Winterthur view of La Grenouillère?
How do the foreground boats lead the eye to the walkway and crowd?
Reader Insights
How do the foreground boats lead the eye to the walkway and crowd?
The Oskar Reinhart Collection identifies this exact 1869 canvas at 65 × 92 cm and has held it since 1931.
What distinguishes the Winterthur view from Renoir’s Stockholm picture and Monet’s London canvas?
Join the Conversation
Share a close observation or a source-backed question about Renoir’s Winterthur La Grenouillère.
References
- Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz”, La Grenouillère: owner title, date, medium, dimensions and exact-object image View source.
- Nationalmuseum, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Renoir’s separate La Grenouillère , NM 2425 View source.
- Oskar Reinhart Collection, A Bath of Colours exhibition release (2023): context for the 1869 campaign, collection since 1931 and pairing with Monet’s London canvas View source.
- 2023 exhibition account View source.
- Musée de la Grenouillère, site history: local history of the resort View source.
- Nationalmuseum, National Gallery, London, Monet’s Bathers at La Grenouillère View source.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York View source.
- Wikimedia Commons, exact Winterthur reproduction from the owner’s 2023 press image: 1587 × 1110 file, marked Public Domain Mark/PD-Art View source.
