SUSAN VREELAND'S WORK IN PROGRESS
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SUSAN VREELAND'S WORK IN PROGRESS |
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Luncheon of the Boating Party To be published by Viking, May 2007. |
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Instantly recognizable, beloved the world over, Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party serves as an icon of an age, a place, an art movement at its apogee, and an ideal of human desire and sociability. Who would not want to join this luncheon party on a warm summer afternoon after a morning boating on the Seine River just outside of Paris? |
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Auguste Renoir, Déjeuner des Canotiers (Luncheon of the Boating Party), 1880-81, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. |
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Paris, Summer, 1880 Émile Zola: "The Impressionists are inferior to what they undertake. The man of genius has not yet arisen." Pierre-Auguste Renoir: "I'm going to blow the whole stuffy Salon apart with a painting Zola won't dare deny is genius!" The pressure is on. Renoir has only two months before the good light is gone and he must relinquish the terrace setting for the grand regattas. The question is not whether he will succeed in his daring attempt, but how? Despite what obstacles? With what turnabouts? What life changes? Two actresses, a mime, a journalist, a writer-adventurer, an art collector, a poet, a boatman, a baron, a yachtsman-painter, and more. They are all real. What's going on in their lives while Renoir paints them? What interactions are unleashed? What gnaws at Renoir while he works?
Moving from the bottom right and going counter-clockwise around the painting, the characters are: Gustave Caillebotte, in the straw hat and sleeveless maillot: Wealthy painter, collector of Impressionist paintings who willed his collection to the Louvre and whose legacy is now the basis for the Musée d'Orsay; yachtsman, racer, close friend of Renoir. Angèle, in a blue dress and white hat talking to Gustave: Florist, model, singer in an Offenbach opera. Antonio Maggiolo, leaning over Angèle: Italian journalist and writer of comic escapades. Jeanne Samary, with her black-gloved hands to her ears: Actress at the Comédie-Française, former lover of Renoir. Paul Lhote, in a straw hat leaning toward Jeanne: Wild adventurer, journalist, writer of short fiction, a close friend of Renoir. Pierre Lestringuez, in a bowler hat looking at Jeanne: Official at the Ministry of the Interior, dabbler in the occult, hypnotist. Charles Ephrussi, in a top hat: Russian-born art collector, writer and director of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts who championed the Impressionists. Jules Laforgue, in a cap, holding a pipe: Symbolist poet whose work influenced Yeats, Pound and T.S. Eliot; journalist for La Vie Moderne; eventual secretary to Ephrussi. Ellen Andrée, drinking from a glass: Model for Degas as well as Renoir, mime in the Folies-Bergère, eventual actress. Man in profile looking at Ellen: A mystery. Alphonsine Fournaise, leaning on the railing: Daughter of the owners of the Maison Fournaise, a restaurant, hotel and boat rental where the painting is set; war widow. Baron Raoul Barbier, in a bowler talking to Alphonsine: Former cavalry officer and war hero, former mayor of Saigon, yachtsman, sailboat racer, lover of race horses and women. Alphonse Fournaise, leaning on the railing in sleeveless maillot: Son of the owner of Maison Fournaise, renter and builder of boats, rowing champion, jouster in the Fêtes Nautiques. Aline Charigot, with dog: Seamstress in Montmartre, daughter of vineyard grower in Champagne who abandoned the family for America. My Luncheon of the Boating Party takes place during the two months in which Renoir worked on the painting in the vibrant postwar years when social changes usher in la vie moderne. The fourteen people on the terrace are Renoir's friends, my characters. Though some didn't know each other before being asked to pose, their lives unfold and connect during the course of the making of the painting. The novel's epicenter is the terrace of La Maison Fournaise, a restaurant, small hotel, and boat rental twenty-minutes by train west of Paris which attracts a mix of Parisians, especially on Sundays. A popular song of the time extols Sundays when one feels good and has nothing to do but enjoy life. In this spirit, the friends of Renoir go boating in the mornings, eat a three-course luncheon (menus are described), drink aperitifs and wine and sometimes champagne, get to know one another, and then settle in to their poses. Luckily, Renoir doesn't mind his models talking because he wants to catch natural moments. These models not only talk, joke, and tell stories; they sing. The novel is rich with the music of the period. Seven of the models are viewpoint characters, revealing in their individual voices the events of their lives during the weeks in between painting sessions. Their chapters take us into Paris--to the Ile de la Cité, to Montmartre, to a dance hall, to dance the cancan, to a pleasure garden, backstage at the Comédie-Français and the Folies-Bergère. Chapters from Renoir's point of view take us to a string of Montmartre cabarets, sizzling place Pigalle, his studio, the Café Nouvelle-Athènes frequented by artists and writers, his neighborhood crémerie which has its own set of amusing characters, the Tuileries gardens, a raucous rowers festival, a sailing regatta, and, of course, the Louvre. Besides the fourteen models, the novel has a rich cast of characters from all social classes--Alphonse and Louise Fournaise, the proprietors of the Maison, Edgar Degas, Guy de Maupassant, a legendary art dealer, an influential patron, a tender-hearted art supply dealer and his quirky wife, eight fully-developed characters who had something to do with the painting, plus ten more of lesser importance. Although some chapters appear to take us far afield from the painting, what goes on in these chapters always impacts its progress, so everything is woven together like a canvas. In addition to the obvious themes of the painting's challenges, the wrenching breakup of the Impressionist group, the upheaval and change in the marketing of art, and Renoir's personal artistic crisis, the novel takes up themes of the yearning for creative expression, social changes in marriage and in inter-class interactions, and love. Among the artists and models and the ancillary characters, there are three love triangles, each of which has its moments of action and of reflection, of ebbing and flowing. Through it all, there is the eternal Seine, an ever-changing backdrop, city and country, a gentle influence on the characters, and thus on the painting. Check back to see photos of Paris and the Seine where scenes take place.
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