At 35 years old the painter and his friends from Montmartre shared in the misery of exploited workers, moneyless artists and shunned prostitutes – all these people gather on Sundays to the Dance at the Moulin de la Galette to forget their condition during the revelry. Representing them on this large canvas was Renoir’s way of praising a beaming and undying conviviality.
On the soon to be capital of the world and City of Lights’ upper reaches, he used the fabrics’ reflections, the smiles’ warmth and the radiance of a colorful afternoon to assert the invigorating force of the invisible folk – cheerfully celebrating the forgotten to express their eternal freedom.