# Two Sisters (On the Terrace) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1881) Canonical article: https://www.artifact-archive.com/archive/two-sisters-on-the-terrace-pierre-auguste-renoir-1881 - **Painting:** Two Sisters (On the Terrace) - **Artist:** Pierre-Auguste Renoir - **Date:** 1881 - **Medium:** Oil on canvas - **Dimensions:** 100.4 × 80.9 cm (39 1/2 × 31 7/8 in.); Framed: 119.1 × 100.1 × 9.6 cm (46 7/8 × 39 3/8 × 3 3/4 in.) - **Current location:** Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, United States - **Period:** Impressionism - **Culture:** France A gallery talk on Renoir's 1881 painting of two young women posed as sisters on a terrace above the Seine, and on the different ways he painted their faces and the world behind them. ## High-resolution image [Two Sisters (On the Terrace) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1881) | High-resolution image](https://www.artifact-archive.com/print-assets/c847c7dc1e59116313e6b54991e55977d462e512d975e6e0007a288fef8e019a.png) Available image: 3,840 × 4,721 pixels. ## Artwork presentation record Artwork accent colour: #0F272C. Original-image hero position: 50% horizontal, 50% vertical. Decorative crops use the original artwork image; they are not technical examination images. ## Details to notice ### Child's dress and hand at the basket Detail ID: child_white_dress_and_hand. The girl's white dress with a blue trimmed collar and her small hand reaching to the basket rim, the one active gesture linking the two figures to the flowers in the foreground. Original-image crop (%): x 42, y 74, width 34, height 26. ### Balcony railing and Seine Detail ID: terrace_railing_and_river. Curved iron railing threaded with blossoming branches, with the sunlit Seine, its far bank and small sailing boats beyond. This establishes the terrace setting and the outdoor light that pervades the picture. Original-image crop (%): x 0, y 34, width 34, height 40. ### Woman's clasped hands Detail ID: clasped_hands_in_lap. The woman's two pale hands loosely folded in her lap, resting on the dark blue silk of her dress. The idle, closed gesture conveys her quiet, self-contained mood against the girl's alert posture. Original-image crop (%): x 25, y 69, width 31, height 20. ## The story Here are two young women seated together on a terrace above the Seine, with boats and blossoming trees beyond the railing. Renoir called the painting Two Sisters, but despite that title the two were unrelated paid models, posed together to create an intimate pairing of youth and nature. Evidence: documented. Source references: source-1. The older girl wears the blue flannel of a female boater's outfit and a luxurious red hat. The younger one wears an oversize headdress built from a floral bouquet. Her hand touches a small basket of brightly coloured yarn, and the colours of the skeins answer the flowers above her. The two figures are close, but they do not look at each other. Evidence: observation. Source references: source-1, source-4. Look closely at the faces. Renoir painted them with controlled, precise brushwork, so the skin reads like porcelain. Then look past the railing. The river, the boats and the flowering trees are handled in a loose, diaphanous way. That contrast sets the still, modelled faces against a lively, shimmering background. Evidence: observation. Source references: source-1. The setting is the Restaurant Fournaise in Chatou, a village on the Seine. Renoir thought it the perfect place to enjoy nature and good company away from the distractions of Paris. This is among the last of his paintings made there, and he had recently worked at the same spot on Luncheon of the Boating Party. Evidence: documented. Source references: source-1, source-4. He began the picture in April 1881 and exhibited it at the Impressionist exhibition in spring 1882. The same year he signed it, lower right, Renoir '81. One later account identifies the older model as Jeanne Darlot, a future actress then about eighteen. Who posed as the younger sister is not known. Evidence: documented. Source references: source-4, source-1. So the title invites us to see a family scene, while the making of the picture depended on hired models and careful posing. What holds the painting together is that balance: two polished faces close to us, and a relaxed, breezy riverside held just beyond reach. It is a composed image of leisure, not a snapshot of it. Evidence: interpretation. Source references: source-1. ## About the artist ### Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841 to 1919 Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French painter and sculptor (1841–1919). Their work is associated with Impressionism. Their recorded places of work include Paris; Aix-en-Provence; Argenteuil; Cagnes-sur-Mer; Cannes; Marseille; Amersfoort. - **Born:** 1841 - **Died:** 1919 - **Nationality:** France - **Birthplace:** Limoges - **Died in:** Cagnes-sur-Mer ![Artist portrait of Pierre-Auguste Renoir]() Artist portrait. Image credit: Unknown Unknown Musée d'Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt. [Image source](). [Licence: Public domain](). - [Wikidata: Pierre-Auguste Renoir]() ## Research and reference record ### Structured catalogue record #### Title Field ID: title. Two Sisters (On the Terrace) Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Artist or attribution Field ID: artist. Pierre-Auguste Renoir Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Object date Field ID: date. 1881 Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Medium and support Field ID: medium. Oil on canvas Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Dimensions Field ID: dimensions. 100.4 × 80.9 cm (39 1/2 × 31 7/8 in.); Framed: 119.1 × 100.1 × 9.6 cm (46 7/8 × 39 3/8 × 3 3/4 in.) Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4] #### Current collection or location Field ID: location. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, United States Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] #### Movement or period Field ID: period. Impressionism Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Country or culture Field ID: culture. France Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Depicted subject Field ID: subject-summary. Two seated young women, unrelated paid models, posed as sisters on the terrace of the Restaurant Fournaise in Chatou. The older figure wears a boater's blue flannel and red hat; the younger, in a flowered headdress, touches a basket of yarn. The river Seine, boats and blossoming trees lie beyond the terrace railing. Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Title variants Field ID: title-variants. Les Deux Sœurs; Sur la terrasse Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Accession number Field ID: accession-number. 1933.455 Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Support Field ID: support. Canvas Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Inscriptions Field ID: inscriptions. Inscribed lower right: Renoir '81 Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] ### Identity and catalogue Research section ID: catalogue. #### Catalogue identity and inscriptions Claim ID: archive-9ab3072cb66ac2731127. Evidence: documented. The painting catalogued as Two Sisters (On the Terrace) is an oil on canvas of approximately 100.5 by 81 cm, depicting a young woman and a younger companion seated outdoors with a small basket containing balls of wool; beyond the railings of the terrace lie shrubbery and foliage, with the River Seine behind them. The work carries an inscription lower right, Renoir '81, which locates its making within the same year the artist began it. Two distinct dates must be kept apart in any catalogue entry: the year of execution, indicated by the signature and by the account that Renoir began the picture in April 1881, and the much later date of 1933 implied by the memorial collection that brought it to Chicago. The inscription belongs to the object; the accession number and credit line belong to its twentieth-century institutional life. Source IDs: source-1, source-4. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Inscriptions - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body Claim ID: archive-8be2072a07d48ea42f52. Evidence: documented. The apparent sisterhood of the picture is, on the museum's account, a fiction of the studio: despite the title of the painting, Renoir paid unrelated models to create this intimate and perfectly balanced pairing of youth and nature. The pairing is composed rather than observed, and the record of who supplied the two bodies is uneven. Jeanne Darlot (1863–1914), a future actress aged about eighteen at the time, posed as the elder sister, but it is unknown who posed as the younger sister. The elder model can therefore be named and dated through a later account, while the younger remains anonymous even to the sources that identify the first. Any statement that the painting depicts actual sisters, or that both sitters can be named, outruns what the evidence establishes; what is documented is a hired pair, one of whom can be identified and one of whom cannot. Source IDs: source-1, source-4. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: About this artwork - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body Claim ID: legacy-reference-identity-1. Evidence: identity. For Two Sisters, despite the title of the painting, Renoir paid unrelated models to create this intimate and perfectly balanced pairing of youth and nature. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-identity-2. Evidence: identity. The painting is inscribed lower right: Renoir '81. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-identity-3. Evidence: identity. Jeanne Darlot (1863–1914), a future actress aged about eighteen at the time, posed as the elder sister, but it is unknown who posed as the younger sister. Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4] Claim ID: legacy-reference-identity-4. Evidence: identity. The title Two Sisters (French: Les Deux Sœurs) was given by Renoir, and the title On the Terrace (French: Sur la terrasse) was given by its first owner, Paul Durand-Ruel. Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4] ### Subject and iconography Research section ID: subject. #### Composition and setting Claim ID: archive-79908119a423b31647e5. Evidence: observation. The composition is built around two figures seated close together on a terrace, with a small basket of wool resting near them. Beyond the terrace railings the evidence places shrubbery and foliage, and behind that the River Seine, so the picture is organized in successive planes: the seated pair and their basket in the foreground, planting and the railing behind them, and water and distant bank as the setting. The museum record adds what that background contains in Renoir's handling of it, describing a diaphanous impressionist backdrop of river, boats and blossoming trees just beyond the railing. The visible structure therefore pairs a near, enclosed zone of posed figures with a far, open zone of riverside leisure, and the railing functions as the boundary between the two. Source IDs: source-4, source-1. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: About this artwork #### Clothing and the language of leisure Claim ID: archive-63ef3c8adde1cecb48f8. Evidence: observation. Clothing carries much of the picture's social meaning. The older girl wears the blue flannel of a female boater's outfit along with a luxurious red hat, so her dress identifies her with the riverside boating culture of the Seine rather than with ordinary town dress, while the red hat sets a strong warm accent against the blue. The younger girl wears an oversize headdress composed of a floral bouquet, an arrangement that the museum record links visually to the brightly colored skeins of yarn in the basket she gently touches. That echo, flowers above and dyed wool below, ties the younger figure's costume to the basket she handles and gives the lower part of the composition a color rhyme with her head. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: About this artwork #### Title, models and what the pairing shows Claim ID: archive-29966b6979d487119727. Evidence: observation. The evidence supports a distinction between what the title implies and what the painting shows. The title names the pair as sisters, but the museum record states that, despite that title, Renoir paid unrelated models to create the intimate and balanced pairing of youth and nature. A separate account identifies the elder model as Jeanne Darlot, a future actress aged about eighteen at the time, and states that it is unknown who posed as the younger sister. Observation of the two seated girls, then, records a posed relationship of closeness, while the documented circumstances of modeling record hired sitters; the sisterly reading belongs to the title and to the painted arrangement, not to the identities of the people who sat. The separate account's identification of the elder sitter should be attributed to that account, since the younger sitter remains unidentified in the evidence. Source IDs: source-1, source-4. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: About this artwork - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body #### Surface and handling Claim ID: archive-79908119a423b31647e5-2. Evidence: observation. The surface of the painting is divided between two manners of handling that the museum record describes explicitly. Renoir painted the faces of his models with controlled and precise brushwork, producing a porcelain-like surface, while the backdrop of river, boats and blossoming trees beyond the terrace railing is described as diaphanous and impressionist. This is a documented characterization of technique rather than a claim about finish alone: the modeled faces are set against a looser, shimmering distance, so the contrast between the two zones of paint reinforces the spatial contrast between foreground pair and riverside background. It also means the painting's calm center of attention, the faces, was deliberately wrought in a different register from the scene around it. Source IDs: source-1, source-4. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: About this artwork - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body #### The terrace at Chatou Claim ID: archive-9bc683da28720eb7cb0f. Evidence: observation. The terrace setting is identified with a specific place and moment in Renoir's practice. The scene is set at the Restaurant Fournaise in Chatou, a village along the Seine that Renoir considered the perfect spot to enjoy nature and good company away from the urban distractions of Paris. In 1880 to 1881, shortly before beginning this painting, he had worked at the same location on Luncheon of the Boating Party, and this canvas is one of his paintings made at the Restaurant Fournaise on the terrace in Chatou, worked alongside that larger composition. The museum record further describes it as among the last of his paintings set at the Restaurant Fournaise. The visible terrace rail, planting and river thus correspond to a documented working site with a documented recent history in the artist's own output, which is stronger ground for interpretation than any general resemblance to riverside leisure imagery. Source IDs: source-4, source-1. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: About this artwork Claim ID: archive-29966b6979d487119727-2. Evidence: interpretation. Within the larger history of Impressionist depictions of leisure on the Seine, the object's significance is partly a matter of sequence. It belongs to the same terrace at Chatou as Luncheon of the Boating Party and is counted among the last works Renoir made there, so it can be read as a late return to a site already established in his work rather than an isolated excursion. The painting's subject, two young women posed with wool and flowers against a blossoming riverside, sits within the social world of boating dress and riverside sociability that the setting itself documents, and the museum's discussion of the blue boater's outfit shows how clothing anchored that world in visual form. The evidence does not establish a direct line of influence from this painting to later works, so the object's place in that history rests on its documented setting, date and technique rather than on claimed successors. Source IDs: source-4, source-1. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: About this artwork Claim ID: legacy-reference-visual-evidence-1. Evidence: visual_observation. The older girl in Two Sisters wears the blue flannel of a female boater's outfit and a luxurious red hat. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-visual-evidence-2. Evidence: visual_observation. The younger girl in Two Sisters wears an oversize headdress composed of a floral bouquet, echoed in the brightly colored skeins of yarn in the basket that she gently touches. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-visual-evidence-3. Evidence: visual_observation. The painting depicts a young woman and her younger sister seated outdoors with a small basket containing balls of wool, with shrubbery and foliage visible beyond the railings and the River Seine behind it. Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4] ### Historical context Research section ID: context. #### The Fournaise terrace as setting Claim ID: archive-c80b1445e54f73b7f4c7. Evidence: documented. The documented setting of Two Sisters (On the Terrace) is the Restaurant Fournaise in Chatou, a village along the Seine, which the museum record describes as a place Pierre-Auguste Renoir considered the perfect spot to enjoy nature and good company away from the urban distractions of Paris. The museum also states that Two Sisters is among the last of Renoir's paintings set at the Restaurant Fournaise. The location thus supplies both a physical site and a social rationale: a riverside leisure establishment outside the city, presented in the institutional account as a place of restorative sociability rather than urban stimulus. That attributed view of the site helps explain why a painter pursuing riverside leisure subjects would return there, and it frames the terrace as a chosen and meaningful setting rather than an incidental backdrop. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: About this artwork Claim ID: archive-3ac50818a25e54f7f831. Evidence: documented. The circumstances of work are dated in the fallback encyclopedic account: Renoir began Two Sisters in April 1881. The same account places the picture among Renoir's paintings made at the Restaurant Fournaise on the terrace in Chatou, where he worked alongside Luncheon of the Boating Party, and it states that in 1880 to 1881, shortly before working on Two Sisters, Renoir had worked at the same location on that larger composition. The two projects therefore overlap in place and immediately precede one another in time, with the earlier work documented as the longer and more populated scene of the same riverside establishment and the later picture narrowing to two seated figures on its terrace. The museum record separately corroborates the Chatou setting in describing the painting as one of the last made at the Restaurant Fournaise. The beginning of work in April 1881 and the inscription date of 1881 sit alongside the painting's exhibition in the following year's Impressionist exhibition, so the documented chronology spans work begun in spring 1881, completed and signed within that year, and shown publicly in 1882. This sequence is among the firmest parts of the object's record, and it anchors the later sale and provenance events that follow. Source IDs: source-4, source-1. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: About this artwork Claim ID: legacy-reference-context-1. Evidence: historical_context. Pierre-Auguste Renoir considered the Restaurant Fournaise in Chatou, a village along the Seine, the perfect spot to enjoy nature and good company away from the urban distractions of Paris. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-context-2. Evidence: historical_context. Two Sisters (On the Terrace) is among the last of Renoir's paintings set at the Restaurant Fournaise. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-context-3. Evidence: historical_context. Renoir began work on Two Sisters (On the Terrace) in April 1881. Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4] Claim ID: legacy-reference-context-4. Evidence: historical_context. In 1880 to 1881, shortly before working on Two Sisters, Renoir worked at the same location on Luncheon of the Boating Party. Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4] Claim ID: legacy-reference-context-5. Evidence: historical_context. Two Sisters is one of Renoir's paintings made at the Restaurant Fournaise on the terrace in Chatou, where he worked alongside Luncheon of the Boating Party. Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4] ### Materials and technique Research section ID: materials. #### Support and inscription Claim ID: archive-4a0fe9e63c459afe8cba. Evidence: documented. Two Sisters (On the Terrace) is an oil-on-canvas painting measuring approximately 100.5 by 81 cm, a format in which the two figures occupy most of the picture surface while the riverside setting opens behind them. The museum record also preserves the inscription that fixes the work's dating: the painting is signed lower right "Renoir '81." That inscribed year, rather than any later recollection, is the firmest anchor for when the picture was finished, and it aligns with an account that Renoir began work on the canvas in April 1881. The medium and dimensions come from a textual record of the painting rather than from a published technical analysis, and the surviving material descriptions do not mention ground preparation, canvas weave, pigment analysis, or conservation history, so nothing in the evidence establishes those layers. Source IDs: source-4, source-1. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: About this artwork #### Handling of faces and background Claim ID: F7. Evidence: documented. The most fully documented making technique concerns how the faces are painted. According to the museum's account, Renoir painted the faces of his models with controlled and precise brushwork, producing a porcelain-like surface. The contrast that account draws is with the background just beyond the terrace railing: the river, boats, and blossoming trees are described as diaphanous and impressionist in handling, looser and more atmospheric than the heads. This is a curatorial description of visible handling, not a technical examination; the evidence reports no cross sections, no pigment identification, and no x-radiography. It nonetheless establishes a legible distinction in finish across the single canvas, and it locates that distinction specifically between the modelled faces in the foreground and the shimmering leisure landscape behind them. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: About this artwork Claim ID: F18. Evidence: interpretation. What matters for a history of materials and technique is how deliberately composed this surface is, given what the museum says about the sitters. Despite the title, Renoir paid unrelated models to create the intimate pairing of youth and nature, and a separate account identifies the elder model as Jeanne Darlot, a future actress then about eighteen, while noting it is unknown who posed as the younger sister. The polished, controlled finish of the faces is therefore the product of hired, posed models rather than of a family sitting, and the technical contrast between those faces and the looser backdrop is a compositional device built into a made image. The painting was made at the Restaurant Fournaise in Chatou, on the terrace above the Seine, the same location where Renoir worked on Luncheon of the Boating Party in 1880 to 1881 shortly before beginning Two Sisters. Within that larger history, the work documents a moment when a single canvas could hold both tightly modelled figures and an atmospheric riverside painted from the same vantage point, and the technical evidence available describes that division of labour in paint without yet explaining the materials that produced it. Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body Claim ID: legacy-reference-materials-technique-1. Evidence: materials_technique. Renoir painted the faces of his models with controlled and precise brushwork, creating a porcelain-like surface that contrasts with the diaphanous, impressionist backdrop of river, boats, and blossoming trees just beyond the railing of the terrace. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-materials-technique-2. Evidence: materials_technique. Two Sisters is an oil-on-canvas painting with dimensions of approximately 100.5 × 81 cm. Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4] ### Provenance and ownership Research section ID: provenance. #### First Sale and the Earliest Documented Owners Claim ID: archive-8ab8f14d0fbba19fa027. Evidence: documented. The documented chain of ownership begins with the painter and a Paris dealer rather than with a family. The artist sold the canvas to Durand-Ruel in Paris on July 7, 1881, for 1,500 francs. The dealer's ledger did not record the picture under the title by which it is now known: the entry reads Femme sur une terrasse au bord de la Seine, a descriptive formula locating a woman on a terrace beside the river. That transaction sits very close in time to the working date the painting itself carries. Renoir had begun the picture in April 1881 at the Restaurant Fournaise in Chatou, the riverside establishment where he had worked in 1880 and 1881 on Luncheon of the Boating Party, and which he treated as a place to enjoy nature and good company away from the distractions of Paris. The summer sale therefore followed the start of work by only a few months, and it preceded the public showing of the canvas at the seventh Impressionist exhibition in spring 1882, where it appeared as catalogue number 138. The painting's lower-right inscription, Renoir '81, fixes the year the artist assigned to it and is consistent with a sale in July of that year, though a sale date does not by itself establish the moment the last brushstroke was laid. Source IDs: source-1, source-4. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Provenance; About this artwork; Publication History - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body #### A Collector, an Interruption, and Two Titles Claim ID: archive-40ec907c84d9f4a09306. Evidence: documented. The dealer's tenure was not continuous. By 1883 the painting was known to be in the collection of Charles Ephrussi, and by 1892 it had returned to the Durand-Ruel family. The evidence establishes this as a return to the Durand-Ruel circle without supplying the intermediate steps: no sale date, price or instrument of transfer is recorded for the movement from the dealer to Ephrussi, and none is recorded for the movement back. These are accordingly unrecorded intervals, not documented transactions, and they should not be collapsed into a single continuous ownership. The two titles attached to the picture belong precisely to this early chapter of its life. The title Two Sisters, in French Les Deux Sœurs, was given by Renoir. The alternative title On the Terrace, in French Sur la terrasse, was given by its first owner, Paul Durand-Ruel. The pair of names therefore preserves two different emphases: the artist's designation of the figures as sisters, and the dealer's designation of the setting. Both designations survive in the object's later documentation, and the dealer's descriptive instinct is echoed in the ledger entry Femme sur une terrasse au bord de la Seine under which he first acquired the work in 1881. Source IDs: source-4, source-1. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Provenance #### Transfer to New York and the Coburn Acquisition Claim ID: archive-0cb9135f5fffd5331646. Evidence: provenance. The painting's next securely dated movement belongs to the twentieth century and to the international reach of the Durand-Ruel business. Durand-Ruel transferred the canvas to New York in 1922. Whether that transfer was a relocation of stock for exhibition and sale or a change of legal owner is not stated in the evidence, which records the movement of the painting rather than the terms of any transaction. Three years later, on February 4, 1925, it was sold to Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn of Chicago for 100,000 dollars. That sale price, set beside the 1,500 francs of July 1881, marks the transformation in the picture's market position across four decades, during which the artist's reputation and the American appetite for Impressionist painting both changed profoundly. The Coburn purchase also determines the later museum identity of the work: it entered the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, reference number 1933.455. The reference number and the memorial credit line are the institutional record of a private collection becoming public, and they close the documented sequence from the artist's studio through two dealers and two named collectors to a civic museum. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Provenance #### What Provenance Explains About the Object Claim ID: archive-8dc6d368dce099a2b13c. Evidence: interpretation. Read as a whole, the ownership record illuminates more than the movement of property. The early sale to Durand-Ruel in July 1881, the appearance of the canvas in Charles Ephrussi's collection by 1883 and its return to the Durand-Ruel family by 1892, its inclusion in the 1882 Impressionist exhibition and its transfer to New York in 1922 together trace a picture circulating among the principal actors in the promotion of Impressionism in Paris and, later, its reception in the United States. The survival of two titles is a small but telling index of that circulation: the artist's Two Sisters and the dealer's On the Terrace record distinct ways of presenting the same object, and the museum record preserves both rather than choosing one. The gaps in the sequence deserve the same care as the dated events. The journey to Ephrussi and back, and the circumstances of the 1922 New York transfer, remain undocumented in the evidence supplied here, and no family relationship between the sitters is established by the ownership history. The title Renoir gave the work describes the picture's subject, not a documented kinship between the models. Source IDs: source-1, source-4. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Provenance; Publication History - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body Claim ID: legacy-reference-provenance-1. Evidence: provenance. The artist sold Two Sisters to Durand-Ruel, Paris, on July 7, 1881, for 1,500 francs, recorded under the title Femme sur une terrasse au bord de la Seine. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-provenance-2. Evidence: provenance. Durand-Ruel transferred the painting to New York in 1922, and it was sold to Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn, Chicago, on February 4, 1925, for 100,000 dollars. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-provenance-3. Evidence: provenance. The painting was known to be in the collection of Charles Ephrussi in 1883, and by 1892 it had returned to the Durand-Ruel family. Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4] #### Ownership and movement timeline **April 1881:** Renoir began work on Two Sisters (On the Terrace). Timeline event ID: timeline-db54136511591c250d1a. Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body **July 7, 1881:** The artist sold the painting to Durand-Ruel in Paris for 1,500 francs, recorded under the title Femme sur une terrasse au bord de la Seine. Timeline event ID: timeline-fd183066709dd7adfdf2. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Provenance **spring 1882:** The painting was shown at the 7th Impressionist exhibition, catalogue number 138. Timeline event ID: timeline-36024c4ff4052537c00f. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Publication History; About this artwork **1883:** The painting was known to be in the collection of Charles Ephrussi. Timeline event ID: timeline-795bc6bfd6e27cb74905. Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body **by 1892:** The painting had returned to the Durand-Ruel family. Timeline event ID: timeline-b57127ef4561fd42f496. Source IDs: source-4. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body **1922:** Durand-Ruel transferred the painting to New York. Timeline event ID: timeline-a0a4c932fe4aaa5d0773. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Provenance **February 4, 1925:** The painting was sold to Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn of Chicago for 100,000 dollars. Timeline event ID: timeline-14c01c6484540e850d2a. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Provenance ### Exhibition history Research section ID: exhibitions. #### The 1882 Impressionist Exhibition Claim ID: archive-202e31f3d47d17c9259f. Evidence: documented. The exhibition record of Two Sisters (On the Terrace) is anchored in a single documented showing in the artist's lifetime: the 7th Impressionist exhibition, held in spring 1882, where the painting appeared as catalogue number 138. This is the exhibition the Art Institute of Chicago records when it states that Renoir exhibited the work at the Impressionist exhibition of 1882, and the catalogue number belongs to that same seventh exhibition rather than to any later venue. The two formulations in the museum record describe one event, not two, and no other exhibition of the painting is established by the supplied evidence. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: About this artwork; Publication History Claim ID: archive-ed3b08ac890060f4b5f9. Evidence: documented. The date of that exhibition follows closely on the painting's making and on its first transfer of ownership. Renoir had begun the picture in April 1881, and it is inscribed lower right Renoir '81. The artist sold it to Durand-Ruel in Paris on July 7, 1881, for 1,500 francs, recorded under the title Femme sur une terrasse au bord de la Seine. When the canvas appeared in the seventh Impressionist exhibition the following spring, it therefore did so as a work already in a dealer's hands, sold within months of its completion. The exhibition history and the provenance history are thus interlocking: the spring 1882 showing belongs to the period when Paul Durand-Ruel held the painting, and the title under which it entered that relationship was not the title by which it is now known. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Provenance; Publication History Claim ID: archive-ae5702fca5dcc4634170. Evidence: interpretation. The naming of the picture bears directly on how its exhibition history should be read. The title Two Sisters (French: Les Deux Sœurs) was given by Renoir, while the title On the Terrace (French: Sur la terrasse) was given by its first owner, Paul Durand-Ruel. A viewer encountering the work in the 1882 exhibition would have done so under a descriptive dealer's title rather than under the relational title the artist chose. The double title that the painting now carries in the Art Institute of Chicago record is therefore a compression of two naming acts, one by the painter and one by the dealer, and it preserves the difference between the intimate family framing Renoir proposed and the more neutral, place-based framing supplied by the market. Source IDs: source-4, source-1. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Publication History #### After the 1882 Showing Claim ID: archive-c76150e7487cf93c644d. Evidence: documented. Exhibition history must be distinguished from later ownership and from current display. After the 1882 showing, the painting was known to be in the collection of Charles Ephrussi in 1883, and by 1892 it had returned to the Durand-Ruel family. Durand-Ruel then transferred it to New York in 1922, and it was sold to Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn of Chicago on February 4, 1925, for 100,000 dollars. It entered the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, reference number 1933.455. These are provenance events, not exhibition events; the supplied evidence establishes the 1882 exhibition and the Coburn collection and its reference number, but it does not establish any exhibition of the painting between 1882 and its entry into the Chicago collection, nor any loan or display after that entry. Source IDs: source-4, source-1. - [Wikipedia contributors, n.d.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29) [source-4]. Locator: Article body - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Provenance; Publication History Claim ID: archive-66000f8b58511d7a6b9f. Evidence: interpretation. The gap between the documented exhibition record and the painting's renown is itself historically significant. The single 1882 showing places the work within the collective enterprise of the Impressionist exhibitions, the series through which Renoir and his colleagues presented their work outside the official Salon, and the catalogue number locates it within that specific seventh installment rather than in a solo presentation. The museum record documents that exhibition and the later Chicago accession, but it does not describe the circumstances of the 1882 hang, the other works shown alongside it, or critical response. Any account of the painting's public reception in 1882 would exceed what these units support, and the exhibition history should be stated at the level the evidence allows: one documented Impressionist exhibition, by catalogue number, in spring 1882. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Publication History; About this artwork; Provenance Claim ID: legacy-reference-exhibitions-1. Evidence: exhibition. Renoir exhibited Two Sisters (On the Terrace) at the Impressionist exhibition of 1882. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-exhibitions-2. Evidence: exhibition. Two Sisters (On the Terrace) was shown at the 7th Impressionist exhibition in spring 1882, catalogue number 138. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] ### Collection and display Research section ID: collection. #### Institutional identity and credit line Claim ID: F9. Evidence: documented. The documentary record for Two Sisters (On the Terrace) is anchored by the Art Institute of Chicago's object record, which gives the painting its institutional identity: it entered the museum as part of the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, under reference number 1933.455. That credit line and number are the stable coordinates within which the museum's other information about the work, including provenance, exhibition history and description of subject and technique, is organized. The memorial designation records a gift in the name of the Coburns, tying the picture's public life in Chicago to a named collecting couple rather than to an anonymous transfer. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Credit Line and Reference Number Claim ID: F9-2. Evidence: documented. The Art Institute's record traces the painting back through the art trade to the artist and forward to its Chicago owners. According to that account, Renoir sold Two Sisters to Durand-Ruel in Paris on July 7, 1881, for 1,500 francs, recorded under the French title Femme sur une terrasse au bord de la Seine. Durand-Ruel transferred the painting to New York in 1922, and it was sold to Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn of Chicago on February 4, 1925, for 100,000 dollars. The museum record states this purchase from Durand-Ruel twice, so the transaction is presented consistently within the same source rather than corroborated by an independent document. Read as a sequence, the provenance shows the picture moving from the dealer's Paris stock to his New York operation and then into a private Chicago collection, with the price rising from 1,500 francs in 1881 to 100,000 dollars in 1925. That gap belongs to the documented sale figures the museum supplies; the record does not explain the market, currency or collecting circumstances behind the change, and those should not be inferred beyond what the source states. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Credit Line and Reference Number Claim ID: F9-3. Evidence: documented. The Art Institute's account connects the painting to the Impressionist exhibition of 1882, specifying that Two Sisters (On the Terrace) was shown at the 7th Impressionist exhibition in spring 1882 as catalogue number 138. The same record notes that the work is inscribed lower right: Renoir '81. Exhibition history and inscription therefore point to slightly different moments, the painting being dated and signed to 1881 yet displayed publicly the following spring. The museum record supplies both facts without reconciling them, and its provenance entry likewise places the sale to Durand-Ruel in July 1881. Taken together, these details establish a documented showing in the 1882 Impressionist exhibition and a documented signature and date on the canvas itself. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Credit Line and Reference Number #### Subject, setting and technique in the museum account Claim ID: F9-4. Evidence: documented. Beyond provenance, the museum's curatorial description supplies what the picture depicts and how it was made. According to the Art Institute, the setting is the Restaurant Fournaise in Chatou, a village along the Seine that Renoir considered the perfect spot to enjoy nature and good company away from the urban distractions of Paris; the museum describes the painting as among the last of his works set at that restaurant. The record also states that, despite the title, Renoir paid unrelated models to create the pairing of the two figures. It describes the older girl wearing the blue flannel of a female boater's outfit and a luxurious red hat, and the younger girl wearing an oversize headdress composed of a floral bouquet, echoed in the brightly colored skeins of yarn in the basket she gently touches. These are the institution's characterizations of the subject and of the models' relationship, and they frame the picture as a composed studio arrangement of hired sitters placed in a leisure setting rather than a record of an actual family group. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Credit Line and Reference Number Claim ID: F9-5. Evidence: documented. On technique, the Art Institute record draws a contrast within a single canvas: Renoir painted the faces of his models with controlled and precise brushwork, creating a porcelain-like surface, while the diaphanous, impressionist backdrop of river, boats and blossoming trees just beyond the terrace railing is handled differently. This distinction matters for how the object is understood in a history of Impressionist painting, because it shows finish and looseness coexisting by design rather than as stages of an unfinished work. The record presents this as a description of the painting's handling; it does not specify pigments, supports or conservation treatment, and those details are not available in the supplied evidence. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Credit Line and Reference Number Claim ID: F9-6. Evidence: interpretation. The Coburn Memorial Collection credit and the reference number are the museum's own institutional designations, while the provenance, exhibition number and 1882 date come from the same object record. Because all of the supplied evidence derives from that single Art Institute source, the account is internally coherent but not independently corroborated here. Distinctions that other accounts might draw, such as the identity of either model, are not part of the supplied record and should not be treated as established by it. The historically consequential facts the record does establish are the 1881 sale to Durand-Ruel, the 1922 transfer to New York, the 1925 sale to Mrs. Coburn, the 1933 entry into the Art Institute collection, and the painting's appearance in the 7th Impressionist exhibition of 1882. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1]. Locator: Credit Line and Reference Number Claim ID: legacy-reference-collection-1. Evidence: collection. The painting entered the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, reference number 1933.455. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] ### Documented values and qualified estimates Research section ID: values. #### Documented prices and provenance Claim ID: valuation-documented-acquisition. Evidence: documented. The documented financial history of Two Sisters (On the Terrace) begins with the artist himself. The Art Institute of Chicago's provenance record states that Renoir sold the painting to Durand-Ruel in Paris on July 7, 1881, for 1,500 francs, recorded under the title Femme sur une terrasse au bord de la Seine. That transaction places the picture in the dealer's hands within months of its making, before its public exhibition, and the recorded title differs from the one by which the work is now known, a reminder that the painting's identity in the market was not yet fixed to the sisterly framing implied by its later name. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] Claim ID: valuation-documented-acquisition-2. Evidence: documented. The later sale that carried the painting to Chicago is recorded with equal specificity: Durand-Ruel transferred the work to New York in 1922, and it was sold to Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn of Chicago on February 4, 1925, for $100,000. The figure belongs to a historical acquisition in 1925 and is not a current valuation; the record offers no inflation adjustment and no comparison to later market activity, so it should be read as a datable event in the painting's collecting history rather than as a measure of present worth. The same source notes that the painting entered the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, reference number 1933.455, which connects the 1925 purchase to the work's eventual public home. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-values-1. Evidence: documented_acquisition. Historical acquisition value: Purchased by Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie Swan) Coburn from Durand-Ruel on February 4, 1925, for $100,000. Recorded date: 1925-02-04. Methodology: Amount and date from the Art Institute of Chicago provenance record for the painting. Qualification: This is a historical acquisition price from 1925, not a current valuation. It is not adjusted for inflation or market changes. Source IDs: source-1. - [Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.c](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace) [source-1] ## Books for further reading Amazon links are paid links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. ### Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919: A Dream of Harmony Peter H. Feist, 1987. Parkwest Pubns A monographic study of Pierre-Auguste Renoir covering French painting and Impressionism, the artist and movement of the named artwork. Relevant through the artist and movement recorded in its subjects and author listing, though it is a broad survey rather than an object-specific study of Two Sisters. Bibliography source ID: book-ol12971897m. ISBN: 9783822800652 [Find book on Amazon.co.uk](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9783822800652&tag=artifactarchi-21) Cover provenance: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL12971897M ## Sources and literature ### [source-1] Two Sisters (On the Terrace), Art Institute of Chicago Art Institute of Chicago (n.d.c). Two Sisters (On the Terrace), Art Institute of Chicago. Two Sisters (On the Terrace). Available at: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace Publisher: Art Institute of Chicago. Type: museum. URL: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655/two-sisters-on-the-terrace Authors / editors: Art Institute of Chicago. Publication year: Not recorded. Publication / journal: Two Sisters (On the Terrace) Language: English Consultation status: partially_consulted. Access status: open_access. Relevance: artwork. Archive annotation: Official museum object record providing identity, date, medium, dimensions, credit line, reference number, provenance, publication history, and curatorial description of the painting's subject and technique. ### [source-2] Two Sisters (On the Terrace) | The Art Institute of Chicago Art Institute of Chicago (n.d.b). Two Sisters (On the Terrace) | The Art Institute of Chicago. Two Sisters (On the Terrace). Available at: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655 Publisher: Art Institute of Chicago. Type: museum. URL: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14655 Authors / editors: Art Institute of Chicago. Publication year: Not recorded. Publication / journal: Two Sisters (On the Terrace) Language: English Consultation status: partially_consulted. Access status: open_access. Relevance: artwork. Archive annotation: Duplicate official object record with same content, used for confirmation of object identity and collection details. ### [source-3] Official source discovered for Two Sisters (On the Terrace) Art Institute of Chicago (n.d.a). Official source discovered for Two Sisters (On the Terrace). Two Sisters (On the Terrace). www.artic.edu. Available at: https://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/14655 Publisher: www.artic.edu. Type: official. URL: https://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/14655 Authors / editors: Art Institute of Chicago. Publication year: Not recorded. Publication / journal: Two Sisters (On the Terrace) Language: English Consultation status: partially_consulted. Access status: open_access. Relevance: artwork. Archive annotation: Alternate URL for the official object record, providing the same information as the primary entry. ### [source-4] Wikipedia fallback: Two Sisters (On the Terrace) Wikipedia contributors (n.d.). Wikipedia fallback: Two Sisters (On the Terrace). Two Sisters (On the Terrace). Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29 Publisher: Wikipedia. Type: secondary. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sisters_%28On_the_Terrace%29 Authors / editors: Wikipedia contributors. Publication year: Not recorded. Publication / journal: Two Sisters (On the Terrace) Language: English Consultation status: partially_consulted. Access status: open_access. Relevance: artwork. Archive annotation: Fallback source used only for details not present in official records, including the identification of Jeanne Darlot as the elder sister, the date Renoir began work, and later provenance through Charles Ephrussi. ### [book-ol12971897m] Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919: A Dream of Harmony Peter H. Feist (1987). Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919: A Dream of Harmony. Parkwest Pubns. ISBN: 9783822800652. Available at: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL12971897M Publisher: Parkwest Pubns. Type: book. URL: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL12971897M Authors / editors: Peter H. Feist. Publication year: 1987. ISBN: 9783822800652 Consultation status: not_yet_consulted. Archive annotation: A monographic study of Pierre-Auguste Renoir covering French painting and Impressionism, the artist and movement of the named artwork. Relevant through the artist and movement recorded in its subjects and author listing, though it is a broad survey rather than an object-specific study of Two Sisters. ## Editorial note Published automatically by Artifact Archive. No human editorial review. ## Coverage and revisions Recorded scope: This record brings together the supplied object-specific evidence and literature. Its citations identify the sources supporting each account. Scope updated on: 2026-11-12 Bibliography entries held: 5. Literature coverage is accumulating. Finding or cataloguing a publication does not mean it has been consulted. A missing consultation status is not recorded. The record does not claim that all literature has been found. Editorial review date: 2026-11-12. ## Product range [Browse ArtifactArchive's current product range](https://www.artifact-archive.com/shop). [This artwork's editions and availability](https://www.artifact-archive.com/archive/two-sisters-on-the-terrace-pierre-auguste-renoir-1881#prints). Delivery country: GB. - Notebook: Choose your size below. - Tough phone case: No suitable size for this painting. - Framed art print: Choose your size below. - Canvas tote bag: Choose your size below. - Mouse mat: Choose your size below. - Flexible phone case: Choose your size below. - Mug: Choose your size below. - Biodegradable phone case: Choose your size below. - Fine art poster: Choose your size below. - Clear phone case: Choose your size below. - Desk mat: Choose your size below. 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