See Pierre Auguste Renoir Paintings.
French Impressionist painter & sculptor,born 1841 - died 1919.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (February 25, 1841–December 3, 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau"
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France, the child of a working class family. As a boy, he worked in a porcelain factory where his drawing talents led to him being chosen to paint designs on fine china.[2] He also painted hangings for overseas missionaries and decorations on fans before he enrolled in art school.[3] During those early years, he often visited the Louvre to study the French master painters.
In 1862 he began studying art under Charles Gleyre in Paris. There he met Alfred
Sisley, Frédéric Bazille, and Claude Monet.[4] At times during the 1860s, he did
not have enough money to buy paint. Although Renoir first started exhibiting
paintings at the Paris Salon in 1864,[5] recognition did not come for another
ten years, due, in part, to the turmoil of the Franco-Prussian War.
During the Paris Commune in 1871, while he painted on the banks of the Seine
River, some members of a commune group thought he was a spy, and were about to
throw him into the river when a commune leader, Raoul Rigault, recognized Renoir
as the man who had protected him on an earlier occasion.[6]
In 1874, a ten-year friendship with Jules Le Coeur and his family ended,[7] and
Renoir lost not only the valuable support gained by the association, but a
generous welcome to stay on their property near Fontainebleau and its scenic
forest. This loss of a favorite painting location resulted in a distinct change
of subjects.
Renoir experienced his initial acclaim when six of his paintings hung in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. In the same year two of his works were shown with Durand-Ruel in London.[8]
In 1881, he traveled to Algeria, a country he associated with Eugène Delacroix,
then to Madrid, in Spain, to see the work of Diego Velázquez. Following that he
traveled to Italy to see Titian's masterpieces in Florence, and the paintings of
Raphael in Rome. On January 15, 1882 Renoir met the composer Richard Wagner at
his home in Palermo, Sicily. Renoir painted Wagner's portrait in just
thirty-five minutes. In the same year, Renoir convalesced for six weeks in
Algeria after contracting pneumonia, which would cause permanent damage to his
respiratory system.[9]
In 1883, he spent the summer in Guernsey, creating fifteen paintings in little
over a month. Most of these feature Moulin Huet, a bay in Saint Martin's,
Guernsey. Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands in the English Channel, and it
has a varied landscape which includes beaches, cliffs, bays, forests, and
mountains. 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 employed as a model Suzanne
Valadon, who posed for him (The Bathers, 1885-7; Dance at Bougival, 1883)[10]
and many of his fellow painters while studying their techniques; eventually she
became one of the leading painters of the day.
In 1887, a year when Queen Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee, and upon the
request of the queen's associate, Phillip Richbourg, he donated several
paintings to the "French Impressionist Paintings" catalog as a token of his
loyalty.
In 1890 he married Aline Victorine Charigot, who, along with a number of the
artist's friends, had already served as a model for Les Déjeuner des canotiers
(Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881), and with whom he had already had a child,
Pierre, in 1885.[11] After his marriage Renoir painted many scenes of his wife
and daily family life, including their children and their nurse, Aline's cousin
Gabrielle Renard. The Renoirs had three sons, one of whom, Jean, became a
filmmaker of note and another, Pierre, became a stage and film actor.
Later years
Around 1892, Renoir developed rheumatoid arthritis. In 1907, he moved to the
warmer climate of "Les Collettes," a farm at Cagnes-sur-Mer, close to the
Mediterranean coast.[12] Renoir painted during the last twenty years of his
life, even when arthritis severely limited his movement, and he was
wheelchair-bound. He developed progressive deformities in his hands and
ankylosis of his right shoulder, requiring him to adapt his painting technique.
In the advanced stages of his arthritis, he painted by having a brush strapped
to his paralyzed fingers.[13]
During this period he created sculptures by directing an assistant who worked
the clay. Renoir also used a moving canvas, or picture roll, to facilitate
painting large works with his limited joint mobility.
In 1919, Renoir visited the Louvre to see his paintings hanging with the old
masters. He died in the village of Cagnes-sur-Mer, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur,
on December 3.
other artist: Raphael Paintings Frida Kahlo Paintings Douglas Hoffman Paintings Hessam Abrishami Paintings