Pierre-Auguste Renoir
French Impressionist
1841-1919
 Pierre-Auguste
Renoir was a French painter who led the art world in the development
of the impressionistic style of painting. As a celebrator of beauty,
and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is
the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from
Rubens to Watteau". His work is characterized by a richness of
feeling and a warmth of response to the world and to the people in
it. Born February 25, 1841, in Limoges, France. Pierre-Auguste
Renoir was raised in Paris and from an early age he showed an
exceptional talent for drawing. He was soon painting plates as an
apprentice in a porcelain factory, and then worked for his older
brother decorating fans. During these early years, Renoir would
frequent the Louvre to study such French masters as
Antoine Watteau,
François Boucher, and Jean Honoré Fragonard. He studied painting
formally in 1862-63 at the academy of the Swiss painter Charles
Gabriel Gleyre in Paris. Renoir's early work was influenced by two
French artists,
Claude
Monet in his treatment of light and the romantic painter Eugène
Delacroix in his treatment of color. Pierre-Auguste Renoir struggled
both financially and emotionally throughout the 1860s as Paris’
renowned state-run art show, the Salon, frequently rejected his
works. At times during the 1860s, Renoir lacked the funds to buy
paint. In 1869, the Salon accepted his painting "Lise".
Renoir's recognition in the art world did not come quickly, due, in
part, to the turmoil of the Franco-Prussian War. |
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 During this period, a revolution later known as Impressionism encouraged artists
to forego the traditional painting methods of the
Renaissance. The artists were
inspired by nature and the visual reality in front of them and sought to portray
it in a fresh and immediate way. A huge departure from the Old Masters, the
paintings used vibrant light and color instead of the somber browns and blacks
that had once dominated popular works. Pierre-Auguste Renoir and
Claude Monet painted together at La Grenouillère, a
bathing spot on the Seine, in 1869. Captivated with the play of light on water,
the artists became obsessed with shadow and reflection and the local
surroundings. This was a key moment in the development of
Impressionism, for it
"was there that Renoir and
Monet
made their discovery that shadows are not brown or black but are
colored by their surroundings, and that the local color of an object
is modified by the light in which it is seen, by reflections from
other objects and by contrast with juxtaposed colors. At the time, the styles of the two artists were virtually
identical, which shows how closely they collaborated with one another and shared
discoveries. In 1874, after being snubbed by the official Salon for their renegade painting
styles, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and other Impressionist painters such as Monet,
Edgar Degas,
Alfred Sisley,
Camille Pissarro, and
Berthe Morisot established
their own independent exhibition. One of Renoir’s most notable works was "The
Theater Box "(shown above), which showed his fondness for rich and freely handled
figurative expression. |
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 Although
the impressionist exhibitions were the targets of public scorn
during the 1870s, Renoir's popularity gradually increased during
this time. He became a friend of
Caillebotte, one of the first
supporters of the impressionists, and he was also backed by several
art dealers and collectors. Renoir began to achieve success as a
portraitist in the late 1870s. One of these paintings was"Madame Charpentier and Her Children" (1878). One of the most
famous of all impressionist works is Renoir's "Le Bal au Moulin de la Galette" (shown
here), an open-air scene of a café, in which
his mastery in figure painting and in representing light is evident.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was freed from financial worries after the
dealer Paul Durand-Ruel began buying his work regularly in 1881. By
this time Renoir felt he had travelled as far as Impressionism could
take him, and a visit to Italy in 1881-82 inspired him to seek a
greater sense of solidarity in his work. When Renoir traveled to
Italy he went to see Titian's masterpieces in Florence, and the
paintings of Raphael in Rome. On January 15, 1882 Renoir met the
composer Richard Wagner at his home in Palermo, Sicily. Renoir
painted Wagner's portrait in just thirty-five minutes. In the same
year, Renoir convalesced for six weeks in Algeria after contracting
pneumonia, which would cause permanent damage to his respiratory
system. |
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 The
change of Renoir's artistic style is seen in "The
Umbrellas" , which was evidently begun before the visit
to Italy and finished afterwards. The two little girls on the
right are painted with the feathery brush-strokes characteristic
of his Impressionist manner, but the figures on the left are
done in a crisper and drier style, with duller coloring. It shows a new attention to design as a well-defined scheme of
arrangement. The
umbrellas form a linear pattern which is far from standard impressionistic
style. The linear
element is also being stressed in the young modiste's bandbox, the little girl's
hoop and the umbrella handles. In this care for definite form, apparent also in
the figures at the left, one can see a discontent with Impressionism and a
search for a firmer basis of style that would date the work to about 1883-1884,
after his travels abroad and the revision he brought into his ideas. It is
unlikely that it preceded the "Muslim Festival" of 1881 and more
probably represents a subsequent reaction. The
Cézanne-like
treatment of the tree at the back also suggests it was painted after Renoir
stayed with him at L'Estaque in 1882. The children and the lady with them are
more indicative of the style of the 'seventies than the rest of the picture
which may well have passed through stages of repainting over a period. The charm
of the whole is nevertheless able to overcome the feeling of slight discrepancy
that may result from close examination.. Renoir's late work is truly remarkable:
a glorious outpouring of nude figures, beautiful young girls,
and lush landscapes. Examples of this style include the "Music
Lesson "(1891), "Young Girl Reading" (1892), and
"Sleeping Bather" (1897). In many ways, the generosity of
feeling in these paintings expands on the achievements of his
great work in the 1870s. |