Renoir

Pierre Auguste Renoir, a French impressionist painter, was noted for his radiant, intimate paintings, particularly of the female nude. Recognized by critics as one of the greatest and most independent painters of his period, Renoir is noted for the harmony of his lines, the brilliance of his colour, and the intimate charm of his wide variety of subjects. Unlike other impressionists he was as much interested in painting the single human figure or family group portraits as he was in landscapes; unlike them, too, he did not subordinate composition and plasticity of form to attempts at rendering the effect of light.

At the age of 13 Renoir 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.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Portrait of Ambroise Vollar...

English: Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881) is a...

The Theater Box, 1874 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Co...

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; Musee d'Orsay, Paris). In his portraits and society paintings, Renoir masterfully rendered the shimmering interplay of light and colour on surfaces, the prime goal of impressionism, but also kept an underlying sensuality. Outstanding examples of his talents as a portraitist are Madame Charpentier and Her Children (1878, The Metropolitan Museum...