Bal du Moulin de la Galette

A sun-dappled crowd dances, drinks, and flirts in the open-air courtyard of a Montmartre dance hall, light filtering through the trees to scatter pools of brightness across faces, straw hats, and dresses. Renoir packs the scene with the gaiety of Parisian working-class leisure on a Sunday afternoon, every figure caught in easy movement and shimmering, broken light. Now in the Musee d'Orsay, the Bal du Moulin de la Galette is among the greatest masterpieces of Impressionism - a large, ambitious canvas devoted entirely to pleasure, sunlight, music, and the joy of being young in the city.