Yet even though in 1913 Octave Mirbeau stated that Renoir never painted an unhappy painting: “His whole life and his work are a lesson in happiness…Perhaps Renoir is the only great painter who has never painted a sad picture” (Mirbeau qtd. White 59), Renoir’s dancing couples seem to be exceptions, unhappy canvases. The frowning mouths of the women in Renoir’s dancing couples imply that Renoir was uncomfortable with the women who were dancing and in painting them, would not allow them to have fun during the activity. Even the two sketches of the first of the paintings, Dance at Bougival, demonstrate Renoir’s dislike for the woman portrayed because she does not smile.
From the sketches, the identity of the woman is not quite clear. We can see the expression on the woman’s face however. Looking closely in the first sketch, her mouth shows a distinct droop to the right side of her mouth, not forming a smile. Renoir does not allow her to be happy because he does not like her, made more clear when we learn her identity in the final painting. 
There is more detail in the second sketch, further demonstrating the woman’s unhappiness. Her mouth holds a firm position and does not curve up to form a smile. In both sketches, the woman does not seem to be enjoying the excitement of the dance. The fact that both two sketches of the final work Renoir portrayed the woman unhappily suggests that Renoir had a clear intention with the way he depicted her face. All three times she frowns, hinting that Renoir truly meant her to be unhappy. While other features of the painting change from the two sketches in the final color work, her mouth remains consistent, showing her discomfort.
Looking at the final painting, Dance at Bougival, the woman’s mouth is also drooping, yet we can better understand Renoir’s meaning by it because her identity is more clearly defined. Significantly, Dance at Bougival was created without a patron in mind: it is larger than the other two of Renoir’s dancing couples and was not intended to be displayed with the other two (Renoir… 211). 
Pictured in this painting is Marie Clementine, who later changed her name to Suzanne Valadon. According to Fosca, she had been a dressmaker before becoming an acrobat, when she injured herself and started posing for artists (Fosca 82). Thus, she was quite the character. Based on what authors have written about Renoir and his feelings about women, we can hypothesize that the reason for Suzanne’s unhappiness in the painting is because Renoir would not have liked her as a person. Suzanne was so wild that he probably didn’t feel comfortable painting her in such an intimate activity as dancing. According to Ann Dumas, Renoir was “a nervous, restless man with contradictory ideas about almost everything, including women” (Dumas 2). He believed that the woman’s place was in the home being practical and domestic, or out of the home sitting for him as a model. Thus, since Suzanne was so active dancing and having a career as an acrobat, he would not have liked her role in society. From his dislike for her, Renoir portrays Suzanne unhappily. Januszczak noticed this straying from happiness and writes about her eyes as he did for the women’s eyes in Le Moulin de la Galette: “But she…ah, she is a typical Renoir girl, and so instead of throwing herself into the dance with abandon, she gazes into infinity. Eyes that should be gay are full of thought” (Januszczak 133). Januszczak recognizes that her eyes do not engage with her partner, yet he does not notice the more prominent feature that shows her uneasiness: her mouth. Her eyes only seem to be looking away from her partner, but her lips actually show she is uncomfortable. They droop, when they should have been smiling, enjoying the dance. Her mouth shows unhappiness, while her eyes only show diversion. This seems to point to the fact that Renoir was uncomfortable with Suzanne. He was uneasy about her as a person, and thus reflected it in her discontent, through her frowning mouth.
Renoir, Auguste. Dance at Bougival sketch . 1883. from Vollard, Ambroise. Pierre-Auguste Renoir : paintings, pastels and drawings. San Francisco : Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1989.
Renoir, Auguste. Dance at Bougival sketch. 1883. from Vollard, Ambroise. Pierre-Auguste Renoir : paintings, pastels and drawings. San Francisco : Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1989.
Renoir, Auguste. Dance at Bougival. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.1883.