Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges on 25 February 1841. In 1854, the boy’s parents took him from school and found a place for him in the Lévy brothers’ workshop, where he was to learn to paint porcelain. Renoir’s younger brother Edmond had this to say this about the move: “From what he drew in charcoal on the walls, they concluded that he had the ability for an artist’s profession. That was how our parents came to put him to learn the trade of porcelain painter.” One of the Lévys’ workers, Emile Laporte, painted in oils in his spare time. He suggested Renoir makes use of his canvases and paints. This offer resulted in the appearance of the first painting by the future impressionist. In 1862 Renoir passed the examinations and entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and, simultaneously, one of the independent studios, where instruction was given by Charles Gleyre, a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The second, perhaps even the first, great event of this period in Renoir’s life was his meeting, in Gleyre’s studio, with those who were to become his best friends for the rest of his days and who shared his ideas about art. Much later, when he was already a mature artist, Renoir had the opportunity to see works by Rembrandt in Holland, Velázquez, Goya and El Greco in Spain, and Raphael in Italy. However, Renoir lived and breathed ideas of a new kind of art. He always found his inspirations in the Louvre. “For me, in the Gleyre era, the Louvre was Delacroix,” he confessed to Jean. For Renoir, the First Impressionist Exhibition was the moment his vision of art and the artist was affirmed. This period in Renoir’s life was marked by one further significant event. In 1873 he moved to Montmartre, to the house at 35 Rue Saint-Georges, where he lived until 1884. Renoir remained loyal to Montmartre for the rest of his life. Here he found his “plein-air” subjects, his models and even his family. It was in the 1870s that Renoir acquired the friends who would stay with him for the remainder of his days. One of them was the art-dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who began to buy his paintings in 1872. In summer, Renoir continued to paint a great deal outdoors together with Monet. He would travel out to Argenteuil, where Monet rented a house for his family. Edouard Manet sometimes worked with them too. In 1877, at the Third Impressionist Exhibition, Renoir presented a panorama of over twenty paintings. They included landscapes created in Paris, on the Seine, outside the city and in Claude Monet’s garden; studies of women’s heads and bouquets of flowers; portraits of Sisley, the actress Jeanne Samary, the writer Alphonse Daudet and the politician Spuller; and also The Swing and The Ball at the Moulin de la Galette. Finally, in the 1880s Renoir hit a “winning streak”. He was commissioned by rich financiers, the owner of the Grands Magasins du Louvre and Senator Goujon. His paintings were exhibited in London and Brussels, as well as at the Seventh International Exhibition held at Georges Petit’s in Paris in 1886. In a letter to Durand-Ruel, then in New York, Renoir wrote: “The Petit exhibition has opened and is not doing badly, so they say. After all, it’s so hard to judge about yourself. I think I have managed to take a step forward towards public respect. A small step, but even that is something.”
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Foreword
Auguste Renoir was the great Impressionist painter of the female form. His voluptuous, seductive women appear to be as delighted to be painted as the painter delighted in painting them.
The paintings in this book include the early open air scenes along the Seine and in the gardens, as well as nudes and two portraits of the actress Jeanne Samary, one a head-and-shoulders, the other full-length. Although most of the paintings date from the 1870s and 1880s, there is a landscape dated 1902 which is strikingly different from the rest in its violent brushstrokes and the almost sketchy haste in which the artist rushed to depict the subject on the canvas. This set of beautiful, full-colour reproductions is a unique opportunity to see some of the little-known works of Renoir as well as some of the very famous ones.
Biography
Pierre Auguste Renoir, photograph
1841: Born on 25 February into the family of the Limoges tailor Léonard Renoir.
1844: Renoir’s family moves to Paris.
1848–1854: Goes to school and sings in the choir of Saint-Eustache, where Charles Gounod was choir-master.
1854: Works in the porcelain-painting workshop of the Lévy brothers.
1858: Copies Watteau, Fragonard and other masters of the past in the Louvre.
1862: Enters the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Studies at Charles Gleyre’s studio. Meets Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Frédéric Bazille.
1863: Leaves Gleyre’s studio.
1864: Exhibits the painting Esmeralda at the Salon.
1866: Completes his first large painting At the Inn of the Mother Anthony.
1870–1871: On the declaration of the Franco-Prussian War, Renoir is drafted as a common soldier.
1872: Meets Paul Durand-Ruel. Exhibits his painting Parisiennes Dressed as Algerian Women at the Salon.
1873: Exhibits Riders in the Bois de Boulogne at the Salon des Refusés.
1874: Exhibits 1 pastel and 6 paintings at the First Impressionist Exhibition.
1876: Exhibits 15 paintings at the Second Impressionist Exhibition. Paints Garden in the Rue Cortot, Montmartre, Nude, The Ball at the Moulin de la Galette.
1877: Exhibits 21 paintings, including Portrait of Jeanne Samary, at the Third Impressionist Exhibition.
1879: Exhibits Portrait of Madame Charpentier with Her Children and Portrait of Jeanne Samary.
First one-man show at the gallery of the magazine La Vie Moderne.
1880: Meets Aline Charigot.
1881: Journeys to Algeria and Italy. Paints The Luncheon of the Boating Party.
1883: Retrospective exhibition (70 works) on the Boulevard de la Madeleine.
1885: Birth of son Pierre. Paints portraits of Senator Goujon’s children.
1886: Durand-Ruel arranges an exhibition of 39 paintings and pastels by Renoir in New York.
1887: Completes The Great Bathers.
1892: Retrospective exhibition at the Galerie Durand-Ruel (110 works).
1894: Birth of son Jean.
1901: Birth of son Claude.
1915: Aline Renoir dies in Nice.
1919: Pierre-Auguste Renoir dies on 3 December in Cagnes-sur-Mer.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges on 25 February 1841. He was the sixth child in the family of Léonard Renoir and Marguerite Merlet. Three years later, in 1844, the Renoirs moved to Paris. In 1848, Auguste began attending a school run by the Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes. Renoir was lucky with the music teacher – it proved to be the composer Charles Gounod, who took the boy into the choir at the church of Saint-Eustache.
Portrait of the Artist’s Mother
1860
Oil on canvas, 45 × 38 cm
Private collection
In 1854, the boy’s parents took him from school and found a place for him in the Lévy brothers’ workshop, where he was to learn to paint porcelain. Renoir’s younger brother Edmond had this to say: “From what he drew in charcoal on the walls, they concluded that he had the ability for an artist’s profession (…) The young apprentice set about mastering the craft seriously: at the end of the day, he armed himself with a piece of cardboard bigger than himself and headed for the free drawing courses. It went on like that for two or three years.”
Jules Le Cœur Walking in the Fontainebleau Forest with his Dogs
1866
Oil on canvas, 106 × 80 cm
Museu de Arte, São Paulo
He made rapid progress: a few months into his apprenticeship, he was already being set to paint pieces that they usually gave to qualified workers. That made him the butt of jokes. They called him Monsieur Rubens and he cried because they were laughing at him. One of the Lévys’ workers, Emile Laporte, painted in oils in his spare time. He suggested Renoir make use of his canvases and paints. This offer resulted in the appearance of the first painting by the future Impressionist. It was solemnly presented for Laporte’s inspection at the Renoir’s home.
At the Inn of the Mother Anthony
1866
Oil on canvas, 195 × 130 cm
National Museum, Stockholm
Edmond Renoir recollected: “It’s as if it happened yesterday. I was still a boy, but I understood perfectly that something serious was taking place: the easel with the celebrated painting on it was set up in the middle of the largest room in our modest dwelling on the Rue d’Argenteuil. Everyone was nervous and burning with impatience. I was dressed up nicely and told to behave myself. It was very grand. The ‘maître’ arrived… At a signal, I moved his chair up close to the easel. He sat down and set about examining the ‘work’.
