Monet and Renoir: Painting Side by Side

In the summer of 1869, Monet and Renoir – then young, ambitious artists and close friends – set up their easels side by side at La Grenouillère, a fashionable riverside resort just outside Paris. Working 'en plein air' (out-of-doors), the artists painted the same lively scene of fashionable Parisians at leisure – though their artworks reveal remarkably different approaches. For the first time in nearly twenty years, the National Gallery is reuniting two of these celebrated paintings created at La Grenouillère, side by side once more. Look closely at each brushstroke and compare the artists' individual Impressionist style and witness a close friendship that helped shape one of the most influential movements in Western art. The free display will remain on view until mid-September, before Renoir's painting is incorporated into the 'Renoir and Love' (3 October 2026 – 31 January 2027) exhibition at the National Gallery. The reunion of the two paintings has been made possible thanks to the generous loan of Renoir's 'La Grenouillère' from Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.