 |
| Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Dance At The Moulin De La Galette, 1876 |
Renoir's Dance At The Moulin De La Galette remains one of the most preeminent Impressionist paintings. The work displays working class Parisians dressing up for an afternoon at the Moulin De La Galette, a typical place for weekend get togethers with food, wine, and dancing. However, these working class people put on a sort of facade of wealth and prosperity despite their struggles.
Friedrich Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 points out the truth behind this mirage of wealth. Although Engels writes about London, he explains that "Every great town has one or more slum areas into which working classes are packed. Sometimes, of course, poverty is to be found hidden away..." (125). Engels describes the packed streets of London where people "rush past each other as if they had nothing in common" despite their common characteristics and goals as human beings (124). Great cities such as London and Paris divide their wealthy and "slums" and hide their poverty in attempt to boost their confidence of their own wealth. This leads the working class to struggle and strive to become wealthy enough to move into the nice part of town and wear fancy clothes and throw extravagant parties.
