Artist 101

5 Things to Know About Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir is perhaps best known as one of the leading painters of the Impressionist movement, which he joined along with celebrated peers such as Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Camille Pissarro.

Over a long and prolific career spanning five decades, Renoir created an ever-evolving body of work that still fascinates today. His curiosity led him to explore new painting techniques, styles and palette of colours, tackling new subjects and themes.

Here, we look more in depth at the life and work of this lauded artist, illustrated with examples from two upcoming Impressionist & Modern Art auctions on 10 November in New York and 23 November in London, New Bond Street.

1.

Early Life & Impressionist Years

Renoir was born in 1841 in the French city of Limoges into a working-class family. In 1844 they relocated to Paris, moving to a house near the Louvre, where young Renoir would spend countless hours admiring the collections. At 13, he left school to take up an apprenticeship at a Sèvres porcelain factory. His drawing skills were spotted quickly, leading him to being appointed to paint intricate designs, mostly flowers, on fine china. He would return to this foundational subject throughout his life.

In 1862, Renoir began studying art under the tutelage of Swiss painter Charles Gleyre, where he met Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille. It was a period of learning amid ongoing financial hardship. His first exhibition took place in 1864 at the Paris Salon, but it would take another decade until he began reaping the rewards of his early work and attained some recognition. In 1874 he joined forces with Monet, Pissarro, Manet, and Sisley and set up the first Impressionist exhibition, where he showed six paintings that were well received. Later that year he showed two paintings in London in a group exhibition organized by the astute and now legendary art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel.

However, despite his success, he decided to stop showing with the Impressionists in 1877 to pursue his own explorations and a more personal style and aesthetic.

2.

Renoir and Roses

Whether in the shape of delicate miniatures on porcelain, vibrant bouquets conjured up in an Impressionist style, or as part of more mature exercises in painting, roses were one of Renoir’s favourite and more recurrent motifs. Still lifes, of flowers particularly, afforded him more freedom to experiment without the demands imposed by having a model pose for him. This can be seen in the different techniques used in paintings such as Bouquet of Chrysanthemus (1881) and Roses in a Vase (1890). The former’s brushstrokes are smaller and fuzzier, rendering the flowers as in a haze, while the latter’s thicker impasto creates a much more textural effect.

Meanwhile, Jeté de roses (1910) is a fantastic example of Renoir's later work, painted while living in the French Riviera. In Jeté de roses he abandoned the traditional arrangement of a bouquet in a vase, capturing instead his initial impressions on canvas. His bold experimentation with colour, gesture and spontaneity foreshadowed the formal innovations of Post-Impressionists such as Vincent van Gogh.

3.

Paris the Muse

Paris, the City of Light, was another major inspiration for Renoir. One of his first masterpieces, and indeed one of the best works of the Impressionist movement at large, is arguably Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876) where he depicted revellers on a lively Sunday afternoon in Montmartre. Renoir spent many years living in this area of northern Paris, home to a vibrant and bohemian artistic community at the time, which allowed him to share his life and work with like-minded peers and friends.

His love for the district is palpable in his painting Vue de Montmartre (1885), a stunning south-facing vista of Paris from the top of the hill, which remains a much-loved sight for visitors to this day. This was a vantage point that Renoir returned to time and again, keen to represent the view under varying climatic circumstances and push his own limits as an artist. The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia owns a similar work, capturing the same view at mid-day, as opposed to the vibrant dusk of this one.

This is an important work that heralds Renoir’s direction in his later period. Interestingly, while he is considered a figurative painter, in landscapes such as this he allowed himself to experiment with certain degrees of abstraction, emphasizing his signature use of loose, free lines, saturated colour, and natural light. Vue de Montmartre also exudes a feminine sensuality in texture, gesture and colours, echoing the techniques he would perfect in the following decades in his portraits and nudes.

4.

Draughtsman

When we think about Renoir’s output, his vibrant paintings quickly come to mind. But behind each of those great works, there were countless preparatory sketches and whole series of studies, carefully executed by an artist in search of excellence. Hardworking since childhood, when he had developed his technique and patience to paint porcelain, Renoir married talent with discipline. Growing up near the Louvre, he was exposed to the great masters such as Michelangelo from an early age and understood the importance of becoming a skilled draughtsman to be a truly great painter.

But while Michelangelo would focus on individual limbs and body parts, Renoir tended to complete full works even in their preparatory phases. This is the case of masterpieces such as Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876), Le Déjeuner des canotiers (1880-81) and La danse à Bougival (1883) of which preparatory sketches and drawings also exist. Besides their obvious refinement and beauty, rendering them complete artworks in their own rights, these drawings offer an incredible insight into the practice and methods of the artist.

There are also several stunning sketches for his series of bathers and nudes, which confirm Renoir’s talent as one of the finest draughtsmen in art history.

5.

Later Life

In 1907, on the advice of his doctor, Renoir left Paris and moved to the small town of Cagnes-sur-Mer on the sunny Mediterranean coast of France, an area he had travelled to often and knew well. The artist had been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis since 1892 and it was thought that the warmer climate would be kinder on his joints. He bought a five-acre hilltop farm called Les Collettes where inspired by the beauty of his surroundings he found a renewed enjoyment of landscape painting.

In Paysage aux Collettes (1905-1910), for example, one can spot the rounded olive trees of his garden, rendered in lush greens and burnt yellows, the shadows in deep blues and russet tones. In an interview with the art critic René Gimpel that took place in 1918, Renoir said of his new focus on the landscape around him: “I know that I can’t paint nature, but I enjoy struggling with it. A painter can’t be great if he doesn’t understand landscape”.

The Mediterranean light encouraged Renoir to brighten his palette even more, increasing his use of reds so he could capture the earthy Provencal soil. Despite suffering from arthritis and being confined to a wheelchair in his later years, Renoir continued to paint every day apart from Sundays. Matisse visited Les Collettes in 1917 and was deeply impressed by Renoir's mature work, declaring these landscapes celebrating the beauty of the warm Mediterranean coast Renoir’s “best work.”


For more from our global Impressionist & Modern Art team, follow @bonhams_impressionists on Instagram.

Lot 48. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919); Jeté de roses. Estimate: $220,000 - 280,000

Lot 48. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919); Jeté de roses. Estimate: $220,000 - 280,000

Lot 48. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919); Jeté de roses. Estimate: $220,000 - 280,000

Lot 18. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919); Vue de Montmartre. Estimate: $380,000 - 550,000

Lot 18. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919); Vue de Montmartre. Estimate: $380,000 - 550,000

Lot 18. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919); Vue de Montmartre. Estimate: $380,000 - 550,000

Lot 65. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919); Lavandières. Estimate: $40,000 - 60,000

Lot 65. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919); Lavandières. Estimate: $40,000 - 60,000

Lot 65. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919); Lavandières. Estimate: $40,000 - 60,000

Lot 17. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919); Paysage aux Collettes. Estimate: £150,000 - 250,000

Lot 17. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919); Paysage aux Collettes. Estimate: £150,000 - 250,000

Lot 17. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919); Paysage aux Collettes. Estimate: £150,000 - 250,000