Pierre Auguste Renoir

Pierre Auguste Renoir Pierre Auguste Renoir (“Ren-WAH”) 1841-1919 ! French Impressionist Painter The French painter Pierre Auguste Renoir was Vocabulary one of the leading members of the Impressionist movement. He began his career in a Parisian Complementary colors—Colors that are porcelain factory gaining experience with light, opposite each other on the color wheel (red and fresh colors that were to distinguish his green, blue and orange, yellow and violet). When Impressionist work. When he was 21, he entered placed next to each other, both complementary the Paris studio of artist Charles Gleyre, and colors seem brighter and stronger, providing became friends with fellow students Claude emphasis for each and creating a visual vibration Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Frederic Bazille. In the or glow. 1860s Renoir and his friends joined with other avant-garde artists to form a loose knit group Impressionism—A style of art, originating in known as the Impressionists. Paris in the 1860s, in which the main idea was to show changes in the light, color or actions of Renoir was particularly interested in people and scenes with quick brush strokes of color. often painted his friends. His paintings of beautiful Impressionists had two fundamental concerns: women, lovely children, lush landscapes and depicting modern life and painting in the open air. lighthearted picnics and dances reflected his Although their artistic styles and aims were not celebration of natural beauty and the French uniform, as a group they rejected the standard of leisure life in the countryside and cafés of Paris. the day as dictated by the Salon, the officially Renoir masterfully rendered the shimmering approved group of artists. interplay of light and color on surfaces using small dabs of pure color. Following a trip to Algiers and Italy in 1881, Renoir became dissatisfied with the formal restrictions of Art Elements pure Impressionism. In response, he employed a crisper, drier style using less vivid colors. After the Color—The sensation resulting from reflection or mid-1880s, he developed a softer, more supple absorption of light by a surface. Color has three approach, and turned from contemporary subjects properties: hue, which is the name of the color; to more timeless ones, particularly nudes. value, which is the lightness or darkness of the Although stricken with rheumatoid arthritis, which color; and intensity, which refers to the purity of confined him to a wheelchair by the age of 69, he the hue. Renoirʼs paintings are filled with pure continued to paint right up to the day he died in hues, complementary color contrasts, and 1919. His paintings of nude female figures, with contrasts between warm colors (yellows, oranges, their timeless feeling and lustrous skin tones, had reds) and cool colors (greens, blues, violets). the greatest impact on future generations. Even at the end, his paintings reflected the serenity he Shape—An area that is contained within an found in doing his lifeʼs work. implied line and defined or identified by color or value changes. Shapes have two dimensions, length and width, and can be geometric (triangles, rectangles, circles) or organic (found in nature, such as leaves, trees, mountains, clouds, animals, etc.) Contrasts of color define the shapes in Renoirʼs paintings, and often shapes are created primarily by colors applied in broken brushstrokes. For Educational Purposes Only Revised 8/12 1! Pierre Auguste Renoir Art Principles Rhythm/Repetition—The visual movement of elements (color, shape, line, value, space, texture) or the visual equivalent of a musical rhythm. Rhythm is created by the repetition of elements that are the same or nearly the same in regular sequence. Repetition of colors and shapes create rhythm in Renoirʼs paintings, as well as adding visual excitement and a sense of liveliness. Contrast—Refers to differences in values, colors, textures, shapes and other elements. Contrasts create visual excitement and add interest to a work. In his paintings, Renoir contrasted light values with dark values, and warm colors with cool colors (often complementary). For Educational Purposes Only Revised 8/12 2! Pierre Auguste Renoir Biography standards for Salon acceptance and the new styles of art were evident when the Emperor, Napoleon III, decreed that the thousands of rejected works of art were to be shown at an alternative Salon--the Salon des Refusés. This one-time show exhibited examples of a more modern art, including new, “looser” painting techniques and subject matter of modern landscapes and contemporary views of Parisian life. Renoirʼs first submission to the Salon was in 1864. His entry, entitled “Esmeralda Dancing with a Goat” (taken from Victor Hugoʼs novel Notre- Dame de Paris) was accepted because its subject matter was favored by the Salon jury. Although he continued to submit paintings for the next several years, his works were rejected, and he became irritated by the academic atmosphere of the Salon, believing that the fixed rules of academic painting were too restrictive. Pierre Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, France on February 25, 1841, the sixth child of a During the late 1860s, Renoir often found himself tailor. When Renoir was four years old, the family in the company of the friends he met while a moved to Paris, to a humble apartment that was student. He and Claude Monet often painted near the Louvre. He showed a talent for drawing together, with Monet leading the charge to paint at an early age, using his fatherʼs tailorʼs chalk to outdoors. Monet was absorbed with the exact sketch portraits of his family on the floors and analysis of the colors in light and shadow as seen walls of the family home. At the age of 13, he in bright daylight, and this influenced Renoirʼs own became an apprentice in a porcelain factory in work for more than a decade. The landscapes Paris, painting designs on china. Soon, however, they painted combined all the elements that would improvements in porcelain technology made later define the Impressionist movement. The hand-painting uneconomical, and Renoir spent subject matter was ordinary people enjoying another year or two painting on fans, lampshades, leisurely pastimes. More often than not, the scene and blinds. At the age of 21, he resolved to study was near water, as the reflections on the surface art more seriously, and he enrolled in the Ecole of water embodied the momentary and fleeting des Beaux-Arts (the College of Fine Arts), and light sensations the artists sought to capture. entered the Paris studio of the Swiss painter Finally, traditional modeling and the definition of Charles Gleyre. In Gleyreʼs studio, Renoir met forms by contour lines were abandoned in favor of Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille, quickly applied touches of color, a technique that who were also students and who were to play a was the logical development of the artistsʼ desire vital role in his development as an artist. to work quickly to capture the scene in front of their eyes before it changed. Renoir began his career at a time when being successful meant having oneʼs paintings accepted By 1874, after years of rejection by the official at the Salon, Franceʼs annual artistic showcase. Salon, Renoir and his friends joined together to Paintings accepted for exhibit at the Salon were mount an exhibition of their own, in defiance of the traditionally immaculately finished, and based on art establishment. It was held in the studio of historical, religious, mythological or literary Parisian photographer, Paul Nadar, and was subjects. In 1863, the gap between the official scheduled to open two weeks before the official For Educational Purposes Only Revised 08/12 1! Pierre Auguste Renoir Salon. Renoir helped to organize the show, wrote to a friend, “I am going to paint outdoor supervising the hanging of the paintings and pictures in the studio.” overseeing financial arrangements. It was at this exhibition that the term “Impressionism” was first Unlike many of his artist friends who frequented used by an art critic, but not in a complimentary the Montmarte cabaret scene, Renoir lived a way. The exhibit was a critical, as well as financial quiet, settled life. He was looking for a simple disaster, but with the help of art dealer, Paul woman with no intellectual pretensions who would Durand-Ruel, Impressionist exhibits were again devote herself entirely to his well-being. Following attempted in 1876 and 1877. One of Renoirʼs his trip abroad, he settled down with Aline early masterpieces, “Le Bal au Moulin de la Charigot, a young dressmaker who had been his Galette,” an open-air scene of a café with its model during the 1880s. They had a child in 1885, daring effects of broken sunlight, was included in and following their marriage in 1890, Aline had 2 the 1876 exhibit. These exhibitions were again more sons (Jean, born in 1894, became a famous met with hostility and abuse from the critics, but film director). courageous art dealers, such as Durand-Ruel, continued to support the Impressionists, including In the late 1880s, Renoir was chiefly preoccupied Renoir. by the human figure, and began a series of female nudes. These paintings reveal his extraordinary By the late 1870s, Renoir gained critical ability to depict the lustrous, pearly color and recognition and achieved financial security for the texture of skin, and to impart a lyrical feeling to his first time in his life, largely through his friendship subjects, removing them from any specific time or with the wealthy publisher, George Charpentier. place. These were the works that had the greatest Charpentier and his wife hosted “salons” at which impact on subsequent generations. They were Renoir was introduced to many leading figures of created without the slightest hint of lust, rather the political, literary and artistic world.

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