Art & Culture

“Renoir and Love” Already Breaking National Gallery UK Records

London is in love with the upcoming show devoted to the Impressionist, which quickly surpassed prior presale numbers with weeks still to go before opening

By Rena Gross

September 23, 2026

Renoir painting of a lively outdoor dance scene with people socializing and dancing under glowing lights. — Pierre-Auguste Renoir *Dance at the Moulin de la Galette,* (1876). Photo: © Musée d'Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

Romantic ideas are always worth betting on in Paris, as shown by the popularity of the blockbuster “Renoir and Love” at the Musée d’Orsay, where it drew an average of over 6,000 visitors per day for a total of 644,855 visitors between March 17 and July 19, becoming one of the best-attended shows in the 19th-century art museum’s history. And the enthusiasm has continued in advance of the blockbuster crossing the Channel. “Renoir and Love” has broken National Gallery advance ticketing records, with 22,033 booked within the first month of reservations being open to the general public. That is impressively far ahead of the previous record for advance tickets booked within the first month of availability, which was achieved in 2024 when “Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers” sold 15,654 in the same time frame.

Impressionist painting of a woman in white with a fan and a child in a garden with chickens in the background. — Pierre-Auguste Renoir *Madame Monet and Her Son.* Photo: © National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

Couple dancing in a garden, man in a suit, woman in floral dress and red hat, vibrant colors, impressionist style painting. — Pierre-Auguste Renoir *Dance in the Country,* (1883). Photo: © Musée d’Orsay, Paris

The hotly anticipated exhibition brings together 45 works by the beloved Impressionist. Most were created between the early 1870s and 1883, an era when Renoir was especially focused on Parisian life. “Love” plays out on a level broader than simple depiction of romantic couples. Human relationships are treated as a defining feature of contemporary life, playing out through courtship and flirtation, public sociability, friendship and camaraderie, and family and parental affection. Prominent works include the Musée d’Orsay’s Dance at the Moulin de la Galette and Dance in the Country, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s Dance at Bougival, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s The Great Bathers, and The Promenade, on loan from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Couple dancing in a lively outdoor setting, woman in white dress and red hat, man in dark suit and straw hat, others in background. — Pierre-Auguste Renoir *Dance at Bougival*. Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Renoir painting of in 19th-century attire standing by a river with boats, painted in an impressionist style with vibrant colors. — Pierre-Auguste Renoir *Oarsmen at Chatou.* Photo: © National Gallery of Art, Washington

“More than any of his contemporaries, Renoir was committed to chronicling love and friendship and their informal manifestations as keys to modern life,” said co-curator Christopher Riopelle, adding, “Whether on Parisian street corners or in sun-dappled woodlands, he understood that emotion could be as fleeting, as evanescent, as blinding, as his other great and transitory subject, sunlight itself.”

Stateside, “Renoir and Love” will be coming to the MFA Boston, which organized it in concert with the Musée d’Orsay and the National Gallery, between February 28 and June 13 of next year.