I n 1890, at the age of forty-nine, Renoir married his companion of many years, Aline Charigot. Aline hailed from Essoyes, a town 120 miles south of Paris in the Champagne region. Five years later, she persuaded the artist to buy a house in the area—the first Renoir had ever owned (fig. 1). The artist developed a profound affection for family life in Essoyes, and by the early 1900s had produced a large body of landscapes inspired by his surroundings.

La Passarelle à Essoyes depicts a relaxed summer's day in the countryside: on the river's edge, a washerwoman scrubs clothes, children (possibly the artist’s own) fish in the stream, and a boat drifts lazily in the foreground. The natural splendor and luminous coloration recall the Arcadian scenes of Poussin (fig. 2). Ambroise Vollard encountered a similarly idyllic experience when he visited Renoir, recounting, "Renoir had a small residence in Essoyes, his wife's native country, where he spent the hottest months of the summer. What good times I had in this house which was an old peasant house, with thick walls, surrounded by a garden planted with fruit trees!” (quoted in Exh. Cat., Paris, Galerie Daniel Malingue, Renoir, Maîtres lmpressionistes et Modernes, 1985).

Renoir approached the genre of landscape painting in part as a means of refining his artistic skills. In a letter to his friend Berthe Morisot, Renoir referred to the subject matter as "the only way to learn one's craft" (quoted in Exh. Cat., London, National Gallery, Renoir Landscapes, 1865-1883, 2007, p. 190). Consequently, his landscapes often enjoy more variety and chromatic experimentation than his figure paintings. Art historian John House wrote of the artist’s practice when painting en plein air: "He often felt able to parade the most informal and improvisatory aspects of his art; if landscape was primarily a recreation for him, alongside the serious business of figure painting, it was a pastime that encouraged him to produce some of his most immediate and unconventional works" (ibid, p.16).

By 1910, Renoir had relocated to Cagnes-sur-Mer on the Riviera coast due to his worsening chronic rheumatism. Despite his move, Essoyes remained a deeply significant place for him and his family. He continued to spend his summers there until his death in 1919, and he is buried in the local cemetery along with Aline and their three children. Jean Renoir wrote of their home in the region wistfully: “Essoyes… there is no other place like it in the whole wide world. There I spent the best years of my childhood. My enchantment used to begin as soon as I got within ten miles of the village, when the train from Paris had passed the flat plain of Champagne and entered the hilly region covered with vineyards... My father felt well whenever he was at Essoyes; and as he covered his canvases with color he would enjoy having us around as well as the villagers…” (Jean Renoir, Renoir: My Father, New York 1958, pp. 319-321 and 325).