Renoir, Pierre-Auguste

(1841-1919)

Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919) One of the greatest painters affected by
Impressionism. Renoir worked from the age of 13 in a china factory, and his
early training as a painter on porcelain predisposed him toward the light
palette of Impressionism. All his life he was conscious of the need to study
art in museums and dissatisfied with the purely visual aspects of
Impressionism. In 1868 he and Monet worked together on the Seine, and as a
result of painting continually outdoors -- and of Monet's influence -- his
color became lighter and higher in key and his handling freer, the whole canvas
managed in patches of colored light and shadow without any definite drawing.
His early works include portraits, landscapes, flowers, and groups of figures
in settings of cafe, dance-hall, boats, or riverside landscapes; his late works
are mostly nudes, or near nudes. The warmth and tenderness of pink and pearly
flesh entranced him and gave him full scope for his favorite color schemes of
pinks and reds. In 1906 he settled in the south of France, but he was already
crippled with arthritis, which finally rendered him completely helpless, so
that his last pictures were painted with brushes stuck between his twisted
fingers. America is particularly rich in Renoirs, since they were bought there
when the artist was still unappreciated in Europe.

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