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. Charpentier with a chaste sensuousness that was natural and commissioned Renoir to paint a portrait of his wife naive. and children, and the painting was accepted at the Salon of 1879. It was prominently hung through During the last 20 years of his life, Renoir was the influence of Mme. Charpentier, and became crippled by rheumatoid arthritis and confined a Renoirʼs first major critical success. wheelchair. Although he was unable to move his hands freely and needed an assistant to place his By the early 1880s, Renoir began to feel that the brush in his hand, he was able to paint until his tenets of Impressionism had become as restrictive death. Photos showing what look like straps as those of the academic establishment. With his securing the brush to his hand are simply newfound prosperity, he was able to fulfill a desire bandages applied to reduce skin irritation. Renoir to travel and make further study of the masters. died at Cagnes, a village in the south of France, He made two trips; first to North Africa, where the on December 3, 1919 at the age of 78. scorching sun and wealth of colors attracted him, and then to Italy, where he was able to study the sound drawing and composition of the classic Bibliography: tradition which he felt had been sacrificed by Impressionism. Returning to France, Renoir spent Microsoft® Encarta ʻ97 his time with stylistic experiments. He exhibited very little and accepted only a few portrait Renoir, by Patrick Bade, © 1992, Studio Editions Ltd., commissions. He painted outdoors less and less, London preferring to sketch a scene and then complete the painting in his studio. Despite returning to the Renoir, by Walter Pach, © 1983, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., studio and to traditional methods of composing New York and preparing a picture, he continued to paint with the sunlit colors of an Impressionistʼs palette. He

For Educational Purposes Only Revised 08/12 2