Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bal au moulin de la Galette, Impressionism, 1876, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France.

Renoir painted this composition in the summer of 1876. The artist attains to reproduce to perfection the atmosphere of a popular dance hall. "Moulin de la galette" is a canvas so rich in attractions, so full of enchanting details that it becomes nothing less than an affirmation of the goodness of living.

His picture of the Sunday afternoon dance in its acacia-shaded courtyard is one of his happiest compositions. In still-rural Montmartre, the Moulin, called 'de la Galette' (from the pancake which was its speciality), had a local clientele, especially of working girls and their young men together with a sprinkling of artists who, as Renoir did, enjoyed the spectacle and also found unprofessional models.

On May 17, 1990, it was sold for US$78 million at Sotheby's in New York City, New York to Ryoei Saito, the honorary chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Company, Japan.