“To my mind, a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful, and pretty, yes pretty!” said the French master Pierre-Auguste Renoir, celebrated for his tremulous, light-dappled portraits and landscapes. He turned to subjects that were also pleasant and pretty—above all, the eternal dance between men and women. Renoir painted them enjoying the easy pleasures of modern life: boulevards, theaters, restaurants, guinguettes. The scenes echo the flirtatious spirit of Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard’s fêtes galantes—but translated into the bright, bustling world of 19th-century Paris. This exhibition explores the social side of Renoir’s practice in all its sunlit charm. —Elena Clavarino