La Loge (1874)
Courtauld Gallery, London
Couple in a theatre box; shown at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874
Image: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France · CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Art
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
1841–1919 · French
Impressionism
Leading Impressionist who celebrated beauty and pleasure: Parisians dancing, dining and boating in dappled sunlight, and later rosy, full-bodied nudes. Born in Limoges, he trained as a porcelain painter before meeting Monet in Charles Gleyre's studio.
How to spot them
- ▸Happy crowds at leisure in dappled, flickering sunlight
- ▸Soft, feathery brushwork, pearly skin tones and rosy cheeks
- ▸Pretty young women, children, dancing couples and voluptuous late nudes
Key works
Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876)
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Sunday dance in a Montmartre garden, dappled light through the trees
Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880–1881)
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
Friends on the Maison Fournaise balcony at Chatou; Aline Charigot plays with a dog
Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
The Umbrellas (c. 1881–1886)
National Gallery, London (Lane Bequest)
Painted in two phases, showing his shift from soft Impressionism to a harder, linear style
Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Dance at Bougival (1883)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Couple dancing outdoors; the woman was modelled by Suzanne Valadon
Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Quick-fire facts
- •Painted side by side with Monet at La Grenouillère on the Seine in 1869
- •Gustave Caillebotte appears astride a reversed chair in Luncheon of the Boating Party
- •Aline Charigot, shown with the dog in Luncheon of the Boating Party, later became his wife
- •His son Jean Renoir directed the films La Grande Illusion and La Règle du jeu
- •Crippled by rheumatoid arthritis in old age, he kept painting at Cagnes-sur-Mer
- •A smaller version of Bal du moulin de la Galette sold in 1990 for $78.1 million
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Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- The National Gallery, London — The Umbrellas
- The Phillips Collection — Luncheon of the Boating Party