Pierre-Auguste Renoir (/rɛnˈwɑːr/;[1]French:[pjɛʁoɡystʁənwaʁ]; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of theImpressionist style. It has been said that, as a celebrator of beauty and especiallyfeminine sensuality, "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly fromRubens toWatteau."[2]
He was the father of the actorPierre Renoir (1885–1952), the filmmakerJean Renoir (1894–1979) and the ceramic artist Claude Renoir (1901–1969). He was the grandfather of the filmmakerClaude Renoir (1913–1993), son of Pierre.
A Box at the Theater (At the Concert), 1880,Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born inLimoges,Haute-Vienne, France, in 1841. His father, Léonard Renoir, was a tailor of modest means, so, in 1844, Renoir's 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 drawing, he exhibited a greater talent for singing. His talent was encouraged by his teacher,Charles Gounod, who was the choirmaster at the Church of St Roch at the time. However, due to the family's financial circumstances, Renoir had to discontinue his music lessons and leave school at the age of thirteen to pursue an apprenticeship at aporcelain factory.[3][4]
Although Renoir displayed a talent for his work, he frequently tired of the subject matter and sought refuge in the galleries of theLouvre. The owner of the factory recognized his apprentice's talent and communicated this to Renoir's family. Following this, Renoir started taking lessons to prepare for entry intoEcole des Beaux Arts. When theporcelain factory 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 also painted hangings for overseas missionaries and decorations on fans.[5]
In 1862, he began studying art underCharles Gleyre in Paris. There he metAlfred Sisley,Frédéric Bazille, andClaude Monet.[6] At times, during the 1860s, he did not have enough money to buy paint. Renoir had his first success at theSalon of 1868 with his paintingLise with a Parasol (1867), which depictedLise Tréhot, his lover at the time.[7] Although Renoir first started exhibiting paintings at theParis Salon in 1864,[8] recognition was slow in coming, partly as a result of the turmoil of theFranco-Prussian War.
During theParis Commune in 1871, while Renoir painted on the banks of theSeine River, someCommunards thought he was a spy and were about to throw him into the river, when a leader of theCommune,Raoul Rigault, recognized Renoir as the man who had protected him on an earlier occasion.[9] In 1874, a ten-year friendship with Jules Le Cœur and his family ended,[10] and Renoir lost not only the valuable support gained by the association but also a generous welcome to stay on their property nearFontainebleau andits scenic forest. This loss of a favorite painting location resulted in a distinct change of subjects.
Renoir was inspired by the style and subject matter of the previous modern paintersCamille Pissarro andÉdouard Manet.[11] After a series of rejections by the Salon juries, he joined forces with Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, and several other artists to mount theFirst Impressionist Exhibition in April 1874, in which Renoir displayed six paintings. Although the critical response to the exhibition was largely unfavorable, Renoir's work was comparatively well received.[7] That same year, two of his works were shown withPaul 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 diverse range of paintings the next year when the group presented its third exhibition; they includedDance at Le Moulin de la Galette andThe 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 after the success of his paintingMme Charpentier and her Children (1878) at the Salon of 1879, Renoir was a successful and fashionable painter.[7] It was also in 1879 that he met the man who was soon to become his main patron,Paul Bérard [fr], who regularly invited him to paint and enjoy the Normandy seaside at theChâteau de Wargemont. [fr]
In 1881, he traveled toAlgeria, a country he associated withEugène Delacroix,[13] then toMadrid, to see the work ofDiego Velázquez. Following that, he traveled to Italy to seeTitian's masterpieces inFlorence and the paintings ofRaphael in Rome. On 15 January 1882, Renoir met the composerRichard Wagner at his home inPalermo, Sicily. Renoir painted Wagner's portrait in just thirty-five minutes. In the same year, after contracting pneumonia which permanently damaged his respiratory system, Renoir convalesced for six weeks in Algeria.[14]
In 1883, Renoir spent the summer inGuernsey, one ofthe islands in theEnglish Channel with a varied landscape of beaches, cliffs, and bays, where he created fifteen paintings in little over a month. Most of these featureMoulin Huet, a bay inSaint Martin's, Guernsey. These paintings were the subject of a set of commemorative postage stamps issued by the Bailiwick of Guernsey in 1983. While living and working in Montmartre, Renoir employedSuzanne Valadon as a model, who posed for him (The Large Bathers, 1884–1887;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 day. In 1887, the year whenQueen Victoria celebrated herGolden Jubilee, and upon the request of the queen's associate, Phillip Richbourg, Renoir donated several paintings to the "French Impressionist Paintings" catalog as a token of his loyalty.
In 1890, he marriedAline Victorine Charigot, a dressmaker twenty years his junior,[16] who, along with a number of the artist's friends, had already served as a model forLe Déjeuner des canotiers (Luncheon of the Boating 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] After marrying, Renoir painted many scenes of his wife and daily family life including their children and their nurse, Aline's cousinGabrielle 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 note; and Claude Renoir (1901–1969), who became a ceramic artist.
Around 1892, Renoir developedrheumatoid arthritis. In 1907, he moved to the warmer climate of "Les Collettes", a farm at the village ofCagnes-sur-Mer,Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, close to theMediterranean coast.[17] Renoir painted during the last twenty years of his life even after his arthritis severely limited his mobility. He developed progressive deformities in his hands andankylosis of his right 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 brush strapped to his paralyzed fingers,[18] but this is erroneous; Renoir remained able to grasp a brush, although he required an assistant to place it in his hand.[19] The wrapping of his hands with bandages, apparent in late photographs of the artist, served to prevent skin irritation.[19]
In 1919, Renoir visited theLouvre to see his paintings hanging with those of the old 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 the Austrian actressTilla Durieux (1914) contains playful flecks of vibrant color on her shawl that offset the classical pose of the actress and highlight Renoir's skill just five years before his death.
Renoir died in Cagnes-sur-Mer on 3 December 1919 at the age of 78.[20]
Renoir's great-grandson,Alexandre Renoir, has also become a professional artist. In 2018, the Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center inHendersonville, Tennessee, United States, hostedBeauty Remains, an exhibition of his works. The exhibition title comes from a famous quotation by Renoir who, when asked why he continued to paint with his painful arthritis in his advanced years, replied "The pain passes, but the beauty remains."[21]
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 primary subjects. However, in 1876, a reviewer inLe Figaro wrote "Try to explain to Monsieur Renoir that a woman's torso is not a mass of decomposing flesh with those purplish green stains that denote a state of complete putrefaction in a corpse."[22] Yet 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 another and their surroundings.
A fine example of Renoir's early work and evidence of the influence of Courbet's realism, isDiana, 1867. Ostensibly a mythological subject, the painting is a naturalistic studio work; the figure carefully observed, solidly modeled and superimposed upon a contrived landscape. If the work is a "student" piece, Renoir's heightened personal response to female sensuality is present. The model was Lise Tréhot, the artist's mistress at that time, and inspiration for a number of paintings.[25]
In the late 1860s, through the practice of painting light and wateren plein air (outdoors), he and his friendClaude Monet discovered that the color of shadows is not brown or black, but the reflected color of the objects surrounding them, an effect known today asdiffuse 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 best-known Impressionist works is Renoir's 1876Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette (Bal du moulin de la Galette). The painting depicts an open-air scene, crowded with people at a popular dance garden on theButte Montmartre close to where he lived. The works of his early maturity were typically Impressionist snapshots of real life, full of sparkling color and light.
One ofa series,Blonde Bather (1881), marked a distinct change in style following a trip to Italy. The work is part of the permanent collection of theClark Art Institute.
By the mid-1880s, however, he had broken with the movement to apply a more disciplined formal technique to portraits and figure paintings, particularly of women. It was a trip to Italy in 1881 when he saw works byRaphael,Leonardo da Vinci,Titian, and otherRenaissance masters, that convinced him that he was on the wrong path. At that point 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 attempt to return to classicism.[27] Concentrating on his drawing and emphasizing the outlines of figures, he painted works such asBlonde Bather (1881 and 1882) andThe Large Bathers (1884–1887;Philadelphia Museum of Art) during what is sometimes referred to as his "Ingres period".[28]
After 1890 he changed direction again. To dissolve outlines, as in his earlier work, he returned to thinly brushed color.
From this period onward he concentrated on monumental nudes and domestic scenes, fine examples of which areGirls at the Piano, 1892, andGrandes 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 style 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 theBarnes Foundation, inPhiladelphia, United States.
A five-volumecatalogue raisonné of Renoir's works (with one supplement) was published byBernheim-Jeune between 1983 and 2014.[30] Bernheim-Jeune is the only surviving major art dealer that was used by Renoir. TheWildenstein Institute is preparing, but has not yet published, a critical catalogue of Renoir's work.[31] A disagreement between these two organizations concerning an unsigned work inPicton Castle was at the centre of the second episode of the fourth season of the television seriesFake or Fortune.
In 1919,Ambroise Vollard, a renowned art dealer, published a book on the life and 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 hand appliedwatercolor. These prints are signed by Renoir in the plate and are embossed "Vollard" in the lower margin. They are not numbered, dated or signed in pencil.
In 2012, Renoir'sPaysage Bords de Seine was offered for sale at auction but the painting was discovered to have been stolen from theBaltimore Museum of Art in 1951. The sale was cancelled.
^abcDistel, Anne. "Renoir, Auguste."Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 27 December 2014.
^Wadley, Nicholas:Renoir, A Retrospective, page 15. Park Lane, 1989.
^Renoir, Jean, pages 118–21. Different and less life-threatening versions are offered by Paul Valéry and Vollard. In all accounts, however, their re-acquaintance led to great celebration.
^Poulet, A. L.; Murphy, A. R. (1979).Corot to Braque: French Paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston: The Museum. p. 117.ISBN0-87846-134-5.
^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).
Impressionism: a centenary exhibition, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Renoir (p. 179–200)
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