The Moulin de la Galette near the top of Montmartre was a characteristic place of entertainment, and Renoir's picture of the Sunday afternoon dance in its acacia-shaded courtyard is one of his happiest compositions. In still-rural Montmartre, the Moulin, called `de la Galette ...The Moulin de la Galette near the top of Montmartre was a characteristic place of entertainment, and Renoir's picture of the Sunday afternoon dance in its acacia-shaded courtyard is one of his happiest compositions. In still-rural Montmartre, the Moulin, called `de la Galette' from the pancake which was its specialty, had a local clientele, especially of working girls and their young men together with a sprinkling of artists who, as Renoir did, enjoyed the spectacle and also found unprofessional models.
The dapple of light is an Impressionist feature but Renoir after his bout of plein-air landscape at Argenteuil seems especially to have welcomed the opportunity to make human beings, and especially women, the main components of picture. This painting was completed in 1876 and now hangs in the Museum D'Orsey in Paris.