Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) Pierre Auguste Renoir, born in France on February 25, 1841, was undoubtedly one of the most prolific artists of all time. His focus was impressionist artwork, which is a style of painting that concentrates on the general tone and effect produced by a subject without elaboration of details. Impressionist painters were considered radical in their time because they broke many of the rules of picture-making set by earlier generations. They found many of their subjects in life around them rather than in history, which was then the accepted source of subject matter. With about 6,000 paintings completed during the 60 years he was active as an artist, he was noted especially for his radiant, intimate paintings, particularly of the female nude. He was to born in Limoges to Léonard, a tailor, and Marguerite a seamstress. Renoir was the fourth of four children in his family (Pierre Auguste Renoir: Impressionism, 1).
On the Terrasse
Bal du moulin de la Galette
The Theater Box, 1874 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Co...As a French impressionist painter, he 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, he is noted for the harmony of his lines, the brilliance of his color, 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. In contrast, unlike them, too, he did not subordinate composition and plasticity of form to attempts at rendering the effect of light (Renoir - A Dream of Harmony, 92).
At the young age of four in 1844, the family decided to move to Paris and he was sent to attend a Christian Brother's School where he was taught the rudiments of drawing and created the foundation...