AN APPRECIATION: Pierre Auguste Renoir Renoir self-portrait
Pierre Auguste Renoir was one of the stars of the Impressionist movement. A versatile artist, he could render a landscape to rival his friend Claude Monet. However, he could also focus on people, whether in scenes or in portraits, and produce images that speak with an uplifting voice.
Career Renoir was born in 1841 in Limoges, France. However, his family moved to Paris when he was young and that city became his home for much of his life. His father was a tailor and Renoir maintained conservative working class attitudes throughout his life. The boy displayed an interest in art and so he was apprenticed to a porcelain painter, painting flowers and designs on dishes and related items. In addition to giving him his first training in art, his experience as an apprentice instilled in him a lifelong love for craftsmanship. When the market for hand-painted porcelain dried up due to cheaper machine-printed porcelain, it left Renoir with a lasting distaste for the machine-dominated culture that was sweeping over Europe. In his spare time, Renoir would visit the Louvre and he was given permission to copy the paintings. Renoir believed that the best way to study art was to visit museums. Still, Renoir also took formal lessons. First from the sculptor Callouette and later at the Ecole Imperiale et Speciale des Beaux Arts. However, the experience that would change his life was his time at the atelier of Charles Gleyre. This change was not due to anything Gleyre taught him but rather because of the fellow students Renoir met there. They included Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and Jean-Frederic Bazille. It was an exciting time to be in Paris. The Second Empire of Emperor Napoleon III was glamorous and recalled some of the glory of the First Empire. Baron Haussmann's renovation of Paris was sweeping old Medieval city away. Writers and intellectuals were debating in the cafes and salons. Most relevant here, artists led by Edouard Manet were challenging tradition and developing new approaches to art. Renoir and his friends were a part of this artistic revolution. At this point, they had not fully developed their ideas and were still searching for their styles. Renoir drew inspiration from a number of sources including the 18th century French artists Fragonard and Watteau as well as from more contemporary artists such as Delacroix and Courbet. And, of course, there was Manet who everyone in Renoir's circle idolized. Monet, Sisley and Bazille all appear in paintings done by Renoir during this period. In addition, they would often paint together. Indeed, Renoir and Monet would go on expeditions around Paris and set up easels next to each other with the result being depictions of the same scene by the two artists. Perhaps the best example is the depictions of the popular Parisian gathering place on the Seine La Grenouille. Naturally, the two artists influenced each other. Renoir and his friends sold few paintings and were living Bohemian lives in the cheaper quarters of Paris. Bazille, who came from a prosperous background, more than once fed and sheltered the others. But he was not the only one providing support to the others. There is also the story about how Renoir on a visit to his parents' home filled his pockets with bread so that he could feed Monet. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 intruded upon the friends. Monet and Sisley departed with their families to England. Renoir joined a cavalry regiment but did not see action. Bazille was killed in the battle of Beaune-la-Rolande. Following the war, Renoir returned to Paris. He was beginning to find his style. Instead of focusing on the horrors of war and the tragedy that had befallen his friends and his country, Renoir focused on the more joyous parts of life - - people dancing, courting, going to the theater. He also did landscapes and still lifes abounding with lively color. It was a style not everyone appreciated. On a visit to Monet's home in Argenteuil outside of Paris, Renoir found himself painting along side one of his heroes Manet. The older artist was not impressed with what he saw and called his host aside and told Monet in confidence that he should try and persuade his friend to give up painting. Manet was not alone in his criticism. During the 1860s, Renoir had been submitting paintings to the Salon, the prestigious annual exhibition at the pinnacle of the French art world. Some of his paintings were accepted and some were rejected. By 1874, Renoir had decided that this approach was going nowhere and that he needed to try something else. He became excited about the idea of holding an independent exhibition with his friends. As a result, Renoir along with Monet, Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Paul Cezanne and several others arranged to show their work in a photographers studio in Paris. Once again, Renoir's work was the subject of harsh criticism. The First Impressionist exhibition was not a complete failure. Some critics liked what they saw. Therefore, over the next twelve years the group held seven more exhibitions. Renoir only participated in the first three, deciding that this approach too was going nowhere. (The art dealer Paul Durand-Ruell submitted a number of paintings by Renoir that he had purchased to the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition but that was not the artist's choice). By the mid-1870s, Renoir had found a new outlet for his work. It was attracting a circle of admirers who had the means to purchase paintings. At a chance meeting at La Grenouillere, he met the publisher George Charpentier, who was a celebrity. Madame Charpentier held a fashionable salon where intellectuals met with government officials and other celebrities. Renoir's portrait of Madame Charpentier and her children was a hit at the Salon of 1879, leading to more commissions. As a result, as the decade drew to a close, Renoir was both recognized and had a steady stream of income. Now that he had the means, Renoir began to travel to places such as Algeria, England, the Channel Islands, Spain, Sicily, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. For the most part, he was not impressed, preferring his native land. However, the highlight of travel for him was visiting the art museums and seeing the work of the great masters. As much as he enjoyed seeing the art, encountering these works was a humbling experience. He came to the conclusion that he neither knew how to draw or how to paint. Consequently, for the next decade, he developed a new style that incorporated the lessons he had learned from studying the masters. In particular, he was interested in reconciling the master's use of line with the use of color that he had developed in the 1870s. Although he continued to paint various subjects, his focus now was primarily on the female nude. He would often place the figures in an idyllic landscape, recalling the approach often taken by the masters. However, these were modern women, not classical goddesses. In 1892, Renoir developed rheumatoid arthritis, which became more and more crippling throughout the rest of his life. Nonetheless, Renoir continued to produce a great amount of art even though an assistant would have to place the brushes in his bandaged hand. Towards the end of his life, he took up sculpture, directing an assistant as to what he wanted. By the end of his life, Renoir was a respected and recognized artist A moment of triumph came in 1919 when he was carried through the Louvre to see one of his paintings hanging among the works of the great masters that he had studied. Renoir died a few months later. Personal life In 1890, Renoir married Aline Charigot, 20 years the artist's junior. She was from a farming family in Essoyes and had come to Paris in 1874 where she worked as a dressmaker. Aline met Renoir around 1880 and began modeling for him. She appears in many of Renoir's works including many of the nudes he did in the 1880s They had a son in 1886, the first of three children. After Renoir developed arthritis, the family moved to a house near Nice in 1903. Aline designed a new house for them, which was built between 1905 and 1909. Aline managed the household enabling her crippled husband to concentrate on art. She died of a heart attack in 1915. Analysis I never find Renoir disappointing. Whenever I come across a Renoir that I have not seem before in a museum, it is a pleasure. It is uplifting to see a Renoir. Furthermore, as an artist, I am intrigued to see how he handled his various subjects. Renoir's works are things of beauty. He said that a picture should be “jolie.” These days when the art establishment seems to believe that a painting has no intellectual merit unless it is ugly, this aspect of Renoir's approach may seem unfashionable to some. However, there are beautiful things in life and there are good times and so to deny them is to create a distorted picture of the world. Furthermore, Renoir's works are not artificial or pollyannaish. His works convey real emotions. For example, in “At the Theater,” you can sense the excitement mixed with apprehension in the young woman as she sits in the theater for the first time as a young adult. Then there is Renoir's use of color. Like Monet, he understood color and was able to use it to create scenes that impact the senses. Even in his later work where he was striving to be more like the masters of the past, his sense of color still is vibrant and brings the images to life. See our profiles of these other Impressionists and members of their circle.
Frederic Bazille Eugene Boudin Marie Bracquemond Gustave Caillebotte Mary Cassatt Paul Cezanne Edgar Degas Henri Fantin-Latour Paul Gauguin Eva Gonzales Armand Guillaumin Edouard Manet Claude Monet (Part I The Early Years) Claude Monet (Part II High Impressionism) Claude Monet (Part III The Giverny Years) Berthe Morisot Camille Pissarro Alfred Sisley Suzanne Valadon Victor Vignon |
Women were one of Renoir's favorite subjects and he depicted them in a variety of settings and situations.
Above: "By the Seashore." The model is Aline Charigot, the artist's future wife. Below: "At the Theater." 
Renoir was also an excellent Impressionistic landscape painter.
Above: "The Seine at Chatou". Below: "The Gust of Wind." 
Another subject that intrigued Renoir was scenes of everyday life.
Above: "Nini in the Garden." Below: "Confidences." 
Renoir is best known as a painter but he was constantly sketching and drawing. Above: "Young Woman in a Blue Dress.
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Artist appreciation -Pierre Auguste Renoir