This superb painting, one of the most popular Impressionist works in The Art Institute of Chicago, has always been know as On the Terrace; however, recent research has proven that it was sent to the seventh Impressionist exhibition, in 1882, as Two Sisters. "He loves everything that is joyous, brilliant, and consoling in life", an anonymous interviewer once wrote about Pierre Auguste Renoir. This may explain why Two Sisters (On the terrace) is one of the most popular paintings in the Art Institute. Here, Renoir depicted the radiance of lovely young women on a warm and beatiful day. The older sister, formally dressed, is posed in the center of the evocative landscape backdrop of Chatou, a suburban town where the artist spent much of the spring of 1881. She gazes absently beyond her younger sister, who seems, in a charming visual conceit, to have just dashed into the picture.
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