Barnes reportedly offered a blank check for it. But in the end, Duncan Phillips bought it for an immense sum of $125,000 in 1923. Phillips wrote in his journal he was afraid that the there would be riots in the streets of Paris- that the Left Bank would be aflame- when Parisians found that he had purchased it away from its original home. The fascinating thing I heard the docent say was that this painting was essentially a declaration of the modern man. In a canvas the likes reserved for royalty and religious scenery, Renoir chose to fill his corners with the banal impressions of modern life.
Years ago, when I was probably last at the Phillips Collection, I walked up to a girl and declared that she was more beautiful than anything in the entire museum. Ever the romantic, Don Pablo Quixote. Moira was her name, and she was a beauty. I got to go out with this Dulcinea once for my boldness.
"Every thing looks perfect from far away."
-Iron and Wine, "Such Great Heights."
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