Art Institute of Chicago Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise

French painter and sculptor

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Built-in	(1841-02-25)25 Feb 1841 Limoges, France
Died	3 December 1919(1919-12-03) (aged 78) Cagnes-sur-Mer, France
Nationality	French
Known for	Painting
Notable work	Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876 Lunch of the Boating Party, 1880 Pink and Blueish, 1881 Girls at the Piano, 1892 Nude, 1910
Movement	Impressionism

Pierre-Auguste Renoir ^[1] (French: [pjɛʁ oɡyst ʁənwaʁ]; 25 Feb 1841 – iii Dec 1919) was a French creative person who was a leading painter in the evolution of the Impressionist manner. Every bit a celebrator of beauty and peculiarly feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau."^[2]

He was the father of actor Pierre Renoir (1885–1952), filmmaker Jean Renoir (1894–1979) and ceramic artist Claude Renoir (1901–1969). He was the granddaddy of the filmmaker Claude Renoir (1913–1993), son of Pierre.

Life [edit]

Youth [edit]

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France, in 1841. His father, Léonard Renoir, was a tailor of minor means, so in 1844, Renoir'south family moved to Paris in search of more favorable prospects. The location of their home, in rue d'Argenteuil in central Paris, placed Renoir in proximity to the Louvre. Although the young Renoir had a natural proclivity for cartoon, he exhibited a greater talent for singing. His talent was encouraged past his teacher, Charles Gounod, who was the choir-chief at the Church of St Roch at the time. However, due to the family'southward fiscal circumstances, Renoir had to discontinue his music lessons and leave school at the age of xiii to pursue an apprenticeship at a porcelain factory.^[3] ^[4]

Although Renoir displayed a talent for his work, he oft tired of the subject field affair and sought refuge in the galleries of the Louvre. The owner of the manufactory recognized his apprentice's talent and communicated this to Renoir's family. Following this, Renoir started taking lessons to set up for entry into Ecole des Beaux Arts. When the porcelain mill adopted mechanical reproduction processes in 1858, Renoir was forced to find other means to support his learning.^[4] Before he enrolled in art school, he besides painted hangings for overseas missionaries and decorations on fans.^[5]

In 1862, he began studying art nether Charles Gleyre in Paris. There he met Alfred Sisley, Frédéric Bazille, and Claude Monet.^[6] At times, during the 1860s, he did not have enough coin to buy paint. Renoir had his showtime success at the Salon of 1868 with his painting Lise with a Parasol (1867), which depicted Lise Tréhot, his lover at the time.^[7] Although Renoir first started exhibiting paintings at the Paris Salon in 1864,^[8] recognition was slow in coming, partly as a result of the turmoil of the Franco-Prussian State of war.

During the Paris Commune in 1871, while Renoir painted on the banks of the Seine River, some Communards idea he was a spy and were about to throw him into the river, when a leader of the Commune, Raoul Rigault, recognized Renoir as the man who had protected him on an earlier occasion.^[nine] In 1874, a ten-year friendship with Jules Le Cœur and his family concluded,^[x] and Renoir lost not just the valuable support gained by the association but too a generous welcome to stay on their property well-nigh Fontainebleau and its scenic forest. This loss of a favorite painting location resulted in a distinct change of subjects.

Adulthood [edit]

Renoir was inspired by the style and subject area matter of previous modern painters Camille Pissarro and Édouard Manet.^[eleven] After a series of rejections by the Salon juries, he joined forces with Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, and several other artists to mountain the first Impressionist exhibition in April 1874, in which Renoir displayed half-dozen paintings. Although the critical response to the exhibition was largely unfavorable, Renoir's work was comparatively well received.^[7] That same year, ii of his works were shown with Durand-Ruel in London.^[10]

Hoping to secure a livelihood by attracting portrait commissions, Renoir displayed mostly portraits at the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876.^[12] He contributed a more than various range of paintings the next year when the group presented its third exhibition; they included Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette and The Swing.^[12] Renoir did not exhibit in the fourth or fifth Impressionist exhibitions, and instead resumed submitting his works to the Salon. By the end of the 1870s, particularly subsequently the success of his painting Mme Charpentier and her Children (1878) at the Salon of 1879, Renoir was a successful and stylish painter.^[7]

In 1881, he traveled to People's democratic republic of algeria, a state he associated with Eugène Delacroix,^[thirteen] and then to Madrid, to see the piece of work of Diego Velázquez. Following that, he traveled to Italy to meet Titian'due south masterpieces in Florence and the paintings of Raphael in Rome. On 15 January 1882, Renoir met the composer Richard Wagner at his dwelling house in Palermo, Sicily. Renoir painted Wagner's portrait in just xxx-five minutes. In the same twelvemonth, after contracting pneumonia which permanently damaged his respiratory system, Renoir convalesced for six weeks in Algeria.^[14]

In 1883, Renoir spent the summer in Guernsey, one of the islands in the English language Channel with a varied mural of beaches, cliffs, and bays, where he created fifteen paintings in trivial over a calendar month. Most of these feature Moulin Huet, a bay in Saint Martin's, Guernsey. These paintings were the subject area of a ready of commemorative postage stamps issued past the Bailiwick of Guernsey in 1983.

While living and working in Montmartre, Renoir employed Suzanne Valadon as a model, who posed for him (The Big Bathers, 1884–87; Dance at Bougival, 1883)^[15] and many of his fellow painters; during that time she studied their techniques and eventually became one of the leading painters of the solar day.

In 1887, the twelvemonth when Queen Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee, and upon the asking of the queen'southward acquaintance, Phillip Richbourg, Renoir donated several paintings to the "French Impressionist Paintings" itemize as a token of his loyalty.

In 1890, he married Aline Victorine Charigot, a dressmaker 20 years his inferior,^[16] who, along with a number of the artist'southward friends, had already served every bit a model for Le Déjeuner des canotiers (Lunch of the Canoeing Party; she is the woman on the left playing with the dog) in 1881, and with whom he had already had a child, Pierre, in 1885.^[14] Subsequently marrying, Renoir painted many scenes of his wife and daily family unit life including their children and their nurse, Aline's cousin Gabrielle Renard. The Renoirs had three sons: Pierre Renoir (1885–1952), who became a stage and film actor; Jean Renoir (1894–1979), who became a filmmaker of annotation; and Claude Renoir (1901–1969), who became a ceramic artist.

Later years [edit]

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, c. 1910

Around 1892, Renoir developed rheumatoid arthritis. In 1907, he moved to the warmer climate of "Les Collettes," a subcontract at the hamlet of Cagnes-sur-Mer, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, close to the Mediterranean coast.^[17] Renoir painted during the last twenty years of his life even after his arthritis severely express his mobility. He adult progressive deformities in his hands and ankylosis of his correct shoulder, requiring him to change his painting technique. It has often been reported that in the advanced stages of his arthritis, he painted by having a castor strapped to his paralyzed fingers,^[18] just this is erroneous; Renoir remained able to grasp a castor, although he required an assistant to place it in his hand.^[xix] The wrapping of his hands with bandages, apparent in late photographs of the creative person, served to prevent skin irritation.^[19]

In 1919, Renoir visited the Louvre to come across his paintings hanging with those of the sometime masters. During this period, he created sculptures by cooperating with a young artist, Richard Guino, who worked the clay. Due to his limited joint mobility, Renoir also used a moving canvas, or picture roll, to facilitate painting large works.^[19]

Renoir's portrait of Austrian actress Tilla Durieux (1914) contains playful flecks of vibrant colour on her shawl that kickoff the classical pose of the actress and highlight Renoir's skill just 5 years earlier his death.

Renoir died at Cagnes-sur-Mer on iii December 1919.^[xx]

Family unit legacy [edit]

Pierre-Auguste Renoir'southward not bad-grandson, Alexandre Renoir, has also become a professional person artist. In 2018, the Monthaven Arts and Cultural Eye in Hendersonville, Tennessee hosted Beauty Remains, an exhibition of his works. The exhibition championship comes from a famous quote past Pierre-Auguste who, when asked why he continued to paint with his painful arthritis in his advanced years, once said "The pain passes, but the beauty remains."^[21]

Artworks [edit]

Renoir's paintings are notable for their vibrant light and saturated color, most often focusing on people in intimate and candid compositions. The female nude was one of his principal subjects. Notwithstanding, in 1876, a reviewer in Le Figaro wrote "Endeavor to explain to Monsieur Renoir that a woman's torso is non a mass of decomposing flesh with those purplish dark-green stains that denote a state of consummate putrefaction in a corpse."^[22] All the same in characteristic Impressionist style, Renoir suggested the details of a scene through freely brushed touches of colour, so that his figures softly fuse with one some other and their surroundings.

His initial paintings show the influence of the colorism of Eugène Delacroix and the luminosity of Camille Corot. He likewise admired the realism of Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet, and his early on work resembles theirs in his use of black as a colour. Renoir admired Edgar Degas' sense of movement. Other painters Renoir greatly admired were the 18th-century masters François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard.^[24]

A fine example of Renoir's early piece of work and evidence of the influence of Courbet's realism, is Diana, 1867. Ostensibly a mythological discipline, the painting is a naturalistic studio work; the figure carefully observed, solidly modeled and superimposed upon a contrived landscape. If the work is a "educatee" piece, Renoir's heightened personal response to female sensuality is present. The model was Lise Tréhot, the artist's mistress at that fourth dimension, and inspiration for a number of paintings.^[25]

In the late 1860s, through the practise of painting low-cal and h2o en plein air (outdoors), he and his friend Claude Monet discovered that the color of shadows is not brown or blackness, simply the reflected colour of the objects surrounding them, an issue known today as diffuse reflection. Several pairs of paintings exist in which Renoir and Monet worked side-by-side, depicting the same scenes (La Grenouillère, 1869).

One of the all-time known Impressionist works is Renoir'south 1876 Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette (Bal du moulin de la Galette). The painting depicts an open-air scene, crowded with people at a pop dance garden on the Butte Montmartre close to where he lived. The works of his early on maturity were typically Impressionist snapshots of real life, full of sparkling color and calorie-free.

One of a series, Blonde Bather (1881), marked a distinct change in style following a trip to Italy

Past the mid-1880s, withal, he had broken with the movement to apply a more disciplined formal technique to portraits and figure paintings, particularly of women. Information technology was a trip to Italia in 1881 when he saw works past Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci, Titian, and other Renaissance masters, that convinced him that he was on the wrong path. At that betoken he declared, "I had gone as far as I could with Impressionism and I realized I could neither paint nor draw".^[26]

For the next several years he painted in a more severe style in an try to render to classicism.^[27] Concentrating on his drawing and emphasizing the outlines of figures, he painted works such every bit Blonde Bather (1881 and 1882) and The Large Bathers (1884–87; Philadelphia Museum of Art) during what is sometimes referred to every bit his "Ingres period".^[28]

After 1890 he changed direction once more. To dissolve outlines, as in his earlier piece of work, he returned to thinly brushed color.

From this period onward he full-bodied on monumental nudes and domestic scenes, fine examples of which are Girls at the Piano, 1892, and Grandes Baigneuses, 1887. The latter painting is the most typical and successful of Renoir's late, abundantly fleshed nudes.^[29]

A prolific artist, he created several thousand paintings. The warm sensuality of Renoir's manner made his paintings some of the most well-known and frequently reproduced works in the history of art. The single largest collection of his works—181 paintings in all—is at the Barnes Foundation, in Philadelphia.

Catalogue raisonné [edit]

A five-volume catalogue raisonné of Renoir's works (with one supplement) was published by Bernheim-Jeune between 1983 and 2014.^[xxx] Bernheim-Jeune is the simply surviving major fine art dealer that was used by Renoir. The Wildenstein Institute is preparing, just has not withal published, a critical catalogue of Renoir's work.^[31] A disagreement between these two organizations concerning an unsigned work in Picton Castle was at the centre of the second episode of the fourth flavour of the television series Fake or Fortune.

Posthumous prints [edit]

In 1919, Ambroise Vollard, a renowned art dealer, published a book on the life and piece of work of Renoir, La Vie et l'Œuvre de Pierre-Auguste Renoir, in an edition of 1000 copies. In 1986, Vollard's heirs started reprinting the copper plates, generally, etchings with mitt applied watercolor. These prints are signed past Renoir in the plate and are embossed "Vollard" in the lower margin. They are not numbered, dated or signed in pencil.

Posthumous sales [edit]

A minor version of Bal du moulin de la Galette sold for $78.1 million 17 May 1990 at Sotheby's New York.^[32]

In 2012, Renoir's Paysage Bords de Seine was offered for sale at auction only the painting was discovered to have been stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1951. The sale was cancelled.

Gallery of paintings [edit]

Portraits and landscapes [edit]

Pont-Neuf, 1872
Portrait of Alphonsine Fournaise, 1879, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Boating on the Seine (La Yole), c. 1879
The Piazza San Marco, Venice, 1881 (Minneapolis Institute of Fine art)
Fillette au chapeau bleu, 1881, (Jane Henriot), private collection
Tamaris, France, c. 1885 (Minneapolis Institute of Art)
Immature Girl with Cherry Hair, 1894

Self-portraits [edit]

Nudes [edit]

Seated Girl, 1883
After The Bath, 1888
Three Bathers, 1895, Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland, Ohio
Woman at the Well, 1910

Interactive image [edit]

Close-ups [edit]

Come across too [edit]

List of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

References [edit]

^ "Renoir". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
^ Read, Herbert: The Meaning of Fine art, page 127. Faber, 1931.
^ Renoir, Jean: Renoir, My Begetter, pages 57–67. Collins, 1962.
^ ^a ^b Jennings, Guy (2003). History & Techniques of the Great Masters: Renoir. London: Breakthrough Publishing Ltd. p. 6. ISBN1861604696.
^ Vollard, Ambroise: Renoir, An Intimate Record, pages 24–29. Knopf, 1925.
^ Vollard, page 30.
^ ^a ^b ^c Distel, Anne. "Renoir, Auguste." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford Academy Press. Web. 27 December 2014.
^ Wadley, Nicholas: Renoir, A Retrospective, page xv. Park Lane, 1989.
^ Renoir, Jean, pages 118–21. Dissimilar and less life-threatening versions are offered past Paul Valéry and Vollard. In all accounts, yet, their re-acquaintance led to peachy celebration.
^ ^a ^b Wadley, page 15.
^ Haine, Scott (2000). The History of France (1st ed.). Greenwood Press. p. 112. ISBN0-313-30328-2.
^ ^a ^b Brodskaja, Natalja (2010). Impressionism. London: Parkstone Press. p. 114. ISBN9781844847433.
^ Poulet, A. L.; Tater, A. R. (1979). Corot to Braque: French Paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston: The Museum. p. 117. ISBN0-87846-134-v.
^ ^a ^b Wadley, p. 25.
^ Wadley, pages 371, 374.
^ Renoir, Jean (2001). Renoir, My Father. NYRB Classics. p. 200. ISBN0940322773.
^ Wadley, folio 28.
^ André, Albert: Renoir. Crés, 1928.
^ ^a ^b ^c Boonen, Annelies; Residue, Jan van de; Dequeker, Jan; Linden, Sjef van der (20 December 1997). "Boonen, A.; van de Rest, J.; Dequeker, J.; van der Linden, Southward.: "How Renoir Coped with Rheumatoid Arthritis". British Medical Journal, 1997:315:1704–1708". BMJ. Bmj.com. 315 (7123): 1704–1708. doi:10.1136/bmj.315.7123.1704. PMC2128020. PMID 9448547. Retrieved vii April 2012.
^ "Renoir Biography, Life & Quotes". The Art Story . Retrieved 7 October 2021.
^ "Alexandre Renoir Showroom at Monthaven Arts & Cultural Centre in Hendersonville". news.yahoo.com . Retrieved vii March 2019.
^ "La Parisienne, Renoir (1874)". The Guardian. 16 June 2001. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
^ "Porträt Mademoiselle Irène Cahen d'Anvers (Dice kleine Irene) · Auguste Renoir · Stiftung Sammlung E.G. Bührle". www.buehrle.ch.
^ Rey, Robert: La Peinture française à la fin du XIXe siècle, la renaissance du sentiment classique : Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat, Les Beaux-Arts, Van Oest, 1931 (thesis).
^ "From the Bout: Mary Cassatt" Archived xi November 2004 at the Wayback Auto, August Renoir. Retrieved vii March 2007.
^ Ruggiero, Rocky, Renaissancing Renoir, rockyruggiero.com Making Art and History Come To Life webinar, April 19, 2022
^ Clark, Kenneth: The Nude, pages 154–61. Penguin, 1960.
^ Asked late in life if he felt an affinity to Ingres, he responded: "I should very much like to", Rey, quoted in Wadley, page 336.
^ "For me, Renoir becomes a really great creative person in the late nudes, in a higher place all in Les Grandes Baigneuses". David Sylvester, quoted by Wadley, page 378
^ "Bernheim-Jeune". Archived from the original on xiii July 2015. Retrieved thirteen July 2015.
^ Wildenstein Institute Archived xiii July 2015 at the Wayback Automobile
^ Services, From Times Wire (eighteen May 1990). "Renoir Work Sells for $78.ane Million : Sale: The painting 'Au Moulin de la Galette' is highlight of Sotheby's offer of Impressionist and modernistic fine art. The toll is the 2nd highest ever" – via LA Times.

External links [edit]

On 7 December 2019 the Alberta Symphony Orchestra presented a Tribute to Renoir at Triffo Theater in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, under the management of pianist and conductor Emilio De Mercato, for the 100th ceremony of the expiry of Renoir.

59 artworks by or after Pierre-Auguste Renoir at the Art U.k. site
Works by or about Pierre-Auguste Renoir at Internet Archive
Avant-Gardist in Retreat, Holland Cotter, The New York Times, 17 June 2010
Impressionism: a centenary exhibition, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully bachelor online equally PDF), which contains material on Renoir (p. 179–200)
Renoir works at the Art Establish of Chicago, a digital catalogue
"Renoir, Firmin Auguste". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir in American public collections, on the French Sculpture Census website
Renoir, La Promenade on YouTube, (i:49) Frick Drove
Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting,' An Introduction to the Exhibition on YouTube, (6:14) Frick Collection