The Phillips Collection Announces Loan of Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party to Musée d’Orsay
WASHINGTON, DC—Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party—a cornerstone of The Phillips Collection—will be on loan to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, where it will be featured exclusively in the museum’s major international exhibition Renoir and Love: A Joyful Modernity (1865–1885) (on view March 17–July 19, 2026), co-organized with the National Gallery in London and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Guests can enjoy this iconic work at the Phillips through Sunday, February 8, 2026, before it departs for Paris. The painting will return to The Phillips Collection in August 2026.
WHERE: The Phillips Collection, Gallery 201, 1600 21st Street NW, Washington, DC
ADMISSION: Included with museum admission
HOURS: The Phillips Collection is open Tuesday–Sunday, 10 am–5 pm, with extended hours on select days
The exhibition explores Renoir’s legacy and brings together a rare reunion of the artist’s works. While Luncheon of the Boating Party is on view in Paris, The Phillips Collection will present a related installation highlighting artists and themes closely connected to Renoir’s practice. Guests can look forward to a landmark loan from the Musée d’Orsay to The Phillips Collection: Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, scheduled to be on view in summer 2027.
“This loan marks an exciting moment of international collaboration,” says Elsa Smithgall, Chief Curator of The Phillips Collection. “We are pleased to share Luncheon of the Boating Party with audiences at the Musée d’Orsay for the artist’s first major retrospective in Paris in 40 years, reuniting it with Renoir’s finest works to tell a poignant story about love as a guiding light in Renoir’s practice. We look forward to welcoming Bal du moulin de la Galette to Washington next summer, when our guests will have the opportunity to experience them side by side for the first time at the Phillips.”
IMAGE: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880–81, Oil on canvas, 51 1/4 x 69 1/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1923
High-resolution press images are available upon request. Media RSVP is required for film crews. Please contact lcantrell@phillipscollection.org.
ABOUT THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION
The Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of modern art, was founded in 1921. The museum houses one of the world’s most celebrated Impressionist and American modern art collections and continues to grow its collection with important contemporary voices. Its distinctive building combines extensive new galleries with the former home of its founder, Duncan Phillips. The Phillips’s impact spreads nationally and internationally through its diverse and experimental special exhibitions and events, including its award-winning education programs for educators, students, and adults; renowned Phillips Music series; and dynamic art and wellness and Phillips after 5 events. The Phillips Collection’s extensive community partnerships include Phillips@THEARC, the museum’s satellite campus in Southeast DC. The Phillips Collection is a private, non-government museum, supported primarily by donations.