| Mother Anthony’s Tavern | |
| Artist: | Pierre-Auguste Renoir |
| Year: | 1866 |
| Medium: | Oil on canvas |
| Height Metric: | 194 |
| Width Metric: | 131 |
| Metric Unit: | cm |
| Museum: | Nationalmuseum |
Mother Anthony's Tavern (French: Le cabaret de la Mère Antony à Bourron-Marlotte), also known as At the Inn of Mother Anthony, is an 1866 oil-on-canvas painting made by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir during his Fontainebleau period.[1] It is one of Renoir's first major paintings, having completed it at the age of 25. The work is currently in the collection of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.[2] [3]
Although there are various competing interpretations of the figures depicted in the painting, it is thought that the girl clearing plates in the front left of the painting is Nana; painter and architect Jules Le Coeur (1832-1882) appears as the bearded man standing up preparing to roll a cigarette, the clean-shaven man sitting down facing the viewer is thought to be Dutch landscape artist "Bos", a friend of Le Coeur; artist Alfred Sisley (1839–1899) appears as the bearded man seated with a hat next to Toto, a three-legged poodle with a wooden leg; in the far right background we see the back of the proprietor, Madame Anthony, wearing a headscarf.[4] Behind her, on the wall, is an image of French novelist and poet Henry Murger (1822–1861), an icon of Bohemianism.[5]
The painting After Dinner at Ornans (1848–1849) by Gustave Courbet informs this work, showing the influence of Courbet on the early Renoir.[5]