PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR
(1841-1919)
Renoir was born in 1841 and had a long
and distinguished life as an artist until his death in 1919 in
Cagnes, France. In his last years, even in the face of crippling
adversity, Renoir was able to impart through his art work his
exuberance and immense optimism.
In 1845 his family moved to Paris. Between
1856 and 1859 he took an apprenticeship and then worked as a
porcelain painter, also taking evening classes in drawing. He
then studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. He was a fellow
student of Monet, Sisley and Bazille; he went on summer painting
trips with them to Chailly and Fountainbleau. He studied the
eighteenth century paintings in the Louvre and also met Corot,
Millet and Diaz. In 1864 his work was first accepted at the Salon.
During the 1870s he painted with Monet at Argenteuil and elsewhere,
and came to know Cezanne, Dega, Pissarro, etc. In 1874 his work
was included in the first Impressionist exhibition (and in three
of the subsequent seven.) From the late 1870s on he enjoyed increased
success at the Salons, especially with portraiture. Eventually,
he became dissatisfied with Impressionism and felt renewed admiration
for Ingres, Raphael and eighteenth-century art. During the 1880s
he worked increasingly in the south of France.
Renoir's early work as a porcelain painter
reflects two constant characteristics of his art; an enormous
natural facility and a dedication to eighteenth century standards
of decoration and craftsmanship. Apart from the personality of
his brushwork, the main distinction of his 1870s Impressionism
was his preoccupation with the figure as subject matter and particularly
with the gay vitality of Parisian life. Less rigorously introspective
than Monet, he made his reputation at the Salons from the late
1870s with a series of fashionable portraits. Here his dexterity
was combined with anecdotal charm.
The paintings of the Impressionist movement,
which flourished in France from the late 1860s, enjoy an unparalleled
popularity among art lovers today, and no more so than those
of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. His luscious representations of contented
families, cheerful dancers and sun-drenched landscapes seem to
recreate for the modern viewer a lost paradise.
The art of Renoir expresses the unique
relationship between the artist and nature; the harmony between
the man and his world. The lithographs after Renoir are a symbol
of unfailing courage and love of life itself.
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Contemporary & Modern Art by Important Artists