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Art Boutique - a Supergallery for French Art Prints and Framing
PLEASE VISIT OUR ART BOUTIQUE TO PURCHASE RENOIR PRINTS


PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR

The French painter Pierre Auguste Renoir, b. Limoges, France, Feb. 25, 1841, d. Dec. 17, 1919, was one of the founders of impressionism.

Le Moulin de la Galette

"Le Moulin de la Galette"
by Pierre Auguste Renoir
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Within the impressionist group his work stands out as the most traditional in outlook and technique, as well as the most sensual.

At the age of 13 he began painting flowers on dishware at a porcelain factory and later painted fans and screens. In 1862 he entered the studio of Charles Gleyre (1808-74) and became friends with Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley, who shared his inclination to take up painting outdoors. By the time (1869) that he and Monet worked together at La Grenouillere, on the Seine, Renoir had developed a delicate touch and vibrant brushwork that were distinctly his own.

In the early 1870s, Renoir and his friends joined with other avant-garde artists to form a loose-knit artistic circle now known as the impressionist movement. He participated in the first impressionist exhibition (1874) and throughout the 1870s remained committed to impressionist ideals. Renoir, however, continued to produce paintings of a more traditional sort, including portraits and scenes of leisure enjoyment, such as Le Moulin de la Galette (1876; Musée d'Orsay, Paris).

Alphonsine Fournaise at the Grenouillere

"Alphonsine Fournaise at the Grenouillère"
by Pierre Auguste Renoir
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

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In his portraits and society paintings, Renoir masterfully rendered the shimmering interplay of light and color on surfaces, the prime goal of impressionism, but also kept an underlying sensuality.

Renoir's growing dissatisfaction with the formal restrictions of pure impressionism intensified during a visit (1881-82) to Algiers and Italy. In response, he made his figures larger and placed them closer to the picture-plane, with a setting treated like a simple backdrop. This friezelike treatment, best exemplified in his Dance at Bougival (1883; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), led to his so-called "harsh manner" of the mid-1880s, in which he purified his contours and used frozen, static poses.

Beginning in the 1890s, Renoir concentrated almost exclusively on the female figure, using warmer flesh tones, more exotic colors, and a tapestried treatment of landscape. In 1905 he settled at Cagnes near Nice; its sun-drenched climate is reflected in the intense colors of his later works. In his last years (after 1913), he also executed sculpture with the aid of an Italian assistant.


Mark Roskill
Source: The Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Release #9.01, ©1997
Bibliography: Natalia Broadskaya, Auguste Renoir (1984); William Gaunt, Renoir (1983; repr. 1989); John House, et al., Renoir (1985); Sophie Monneret, Renoir (1990); Walter Pache, Renoir (1950; repr. 1984); François Paulte, Renoir (1988); Vassily Photiades, Renoir Nudes (1964); Jean Renoir, Renoir, My Father (1962); John Rewald, The History of Impressionism, 4th rev. ed. (1973); Denis Rouart, Renoir (1985); George de Traz, Renoir: His Life and Work, trans. by Mary I. Martin (1975); Nicholas Wadley, ed., Renoir: A Retrospective (1987); Ambroise Vollard, Renoir (1990); Barbara E. White, Renoir: His Life, Art and Letters (1984; repr. 1988).
Images: "Le Moulin de la Galette" (Musée d'Orsay, Paris/Photo Josse/Photothèque Hachette), "Alphonsine Fournaise at the Grenouillère" (Musée d'Orsay, Paris/Bridgeman Art Library)
Copyrights Notice and Disclaimer: Images of artists' works displayed throughout this site have been obtained from numerous sources, including digital libraries at educational institutions, educational software, and Mark Harden's Artchive. Credit is attributed when known. Some works are considered to be in the public domain, based on current U.S. and international copyright acts. For more information on copyright laws, please refer to the Artists Rights Society and Benedict O'Mahoney's The Copyright Web Site. [See also: DiscoverFrance.net Copyrights.]

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Paintings of Pierre Auguste Renoir
Professor Jeffery Howe offers a look at five of Renoir's paintings (part of Boston College's Digital Archive of Art).

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Renoir Quotations:

"In painting, as in the other arts, there's not a single process, no matter how insignificant, which can be reasonably made into a formula. You come to nature with your theories, and she knocks them all flat." (1)

"I've been 40 years discovering that the queen of all colors was black." (2)

"The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself and carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion. It is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion." (3)

"If the painter works directly from nature, he ultimately looks for nothing but momentary effects; he does not try to compose, and soon he gets monotonous." (4)

Sources of Quotations: (1-4) QuoteWorld.org.

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