PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR 1841 Limoges - 1919 Cagnes-sur-mer (France)

“I am so lucky to have painting, which even very late in life still furnishes illusions and sometimes joy.” Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born on 25th February 1841 in Limoges, France. His parents, a tailor and a seamstress, had seven children. Pierre-Auguste was the couple’s sixth child, but two of his older siblings died in infancy. The family moved to sometime between 1844 and 1846, where they lived near the Louvre museum.

The Renoir family was poor, and Pierre-Auguste had to leave school THE HOUSE OF RENOIR at the age of 13 in order to earn money. He became an apprentice to The House of Renoir. seated Greta Prozar a porcelain painter in a Parisian factory and undertook other types and Auguste Renoir, standing , of decorative painting to make a living. In his spare time he took Matisse & . free drawing classes at a city-sponsored art school, run by sculptor LIMOGES, FRANCE Birth place of Pierre-Auguste Renoir Louis-Denis Caillouette. Using imitation as a learning tool, Renoir copied some of the great works hanging in the Louvre. 1862

In 1862 Renoir entered the École des Beaux-Arts, and also became a student of Charles Gleyre. At Gleyre’s studio, Renoir befriended Frédéric Bazille, and Alfred Sisley. Through Monet, he met such emerging talents as Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne. ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS Paris, France Two of Renoir’s paintings were shown at the prestigious Paris Salons in 1864 and 1865, but he still struggled to make ends meet. He often stayed with friends and shared their studios during his early career. SELF PORTRAIT Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Oil on Canvas, 1875 1890

Renoir married in 1890. The couple already had a son, Pierre, and went on to have two more sons, Jean and Claude. Aline served as a for many of his works, including ‘L’Enfant au Sein’ (Mother Nursing her Child, 1886). 1907

In 1907 Renoir bought some land in Cagnes-sur-Mer where he built a stately home for his family. He continued to work, although the rheumatism that had IN A WHITE SHAWL started in his fifties disfigured his hands, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Oil on Canvas, 1871 leaving his fingers permanently curled. The artist also had a stroke in 1912, which left him in a wheelchair. Renoir died in 1867 1919 at his home in Cagnes-sur-Mer and was buried next to Aline, who had died four years previously, in her hometown Around 1867, Renoir met Lise Tréhot, a of . seamstress who became his model. According to some reports they had a daughter, Jeanne, but Renoir never publicly acknowledged her. The artist was drafted into the army in 1870 to serve his country in the Franco-Prussian War, but he soon fell ill with dysentery and never MOTHER NURSING HER CHILD saw any action during the war. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Oil on Canvas, 1886

Renoir produced approximately 6000 paintings as well as pastels, drawings and sculptures. He was an inspiration to many other artists, RENOIR STATELY HOME including Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse and Cagnes-sur-Mer, France .

“I was an extremely hardworking student; I ground away at academic painting; I studied the classes, but I did not obtain the least honourable mention, and my professors were unanimous in finding my painting execrable.” Pierre-Auguste Renoir PIERRE AUGUST RENOIR The French painter toward the end of his life A journey through the eyes of a master

After years as a struggling painter, Renoir helped launch an artistic movement called Impressionism in the 1870s. The Impressionists were a rare breed of artists who rejected the rigid rules of the fine arts and demonstrated a new way of picturing the world.

IMPRESSION, SUNRISE THE MEADOWS AT ÉRAGNY, APPLE Claude Monet, Oil on Canvas, 1872 Camille Pissarro, Oil on Canvas, 1894

A MODERN PORT BOURGOGNE Paul Cezanne, Oil on Canvas, 1870 Sisley Moret, Oil on Canvas, 1891

After Renoir and his colleagues found their work rejected by the Salon, they got together to work on their own exhibition. This ground-breaking first Impressionist exhibition, held in 1874, would change the course of art history.

The Impressionists were drawn to the transient effects of sunlight, which allowed them to work quickly in the open air. Renoir chose a bright colour palette for his paintings, and used feathery brushstrokes to capture his artistic vision on canvas. In contrast to Monet, people were of more interest to Renoir than landscapes. French writer Emile Zola said, “Renoir is above all a painter of people… You feel that you are seeing Rubens illuminated by the fiery light of Velazquez.”

THE DANCER Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Oil on Canvas, 1874

The 18th-century painter Watteau and ancient Athens were great inspirations for Renoir. Watteau himself was inspired by the writings of the Goncourt brothers, and his influence can be seen in Renoir’s work, as he paints with a poetic vision of an earthly paradise amid idyllic and dreamlike natural surroundings. IMPRESSIONISM A journey through the eyes of a master

In 1883 the French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and a group of friends spent just over a month in Guernsey, staying at 4 George Road, St Peter Port. Renoir wrote a letter from his lodgings, describing how he “watched Normandy disappearing” and stopped off in Jersey on his way to Guernsey.

Renoir worked on 15 pictures during his stay, the majority depicting views of Moulin Huet. The bay is a popular spot for artists due to its particular light and the way it sprawls itself on the rocks. Located on Guernsey’s jagged south coast, it is within walking distance of Renoir’s lodgings. He finished the paintings on his return to his Paris studio.

MAKE AN IMPRESSION STONE BROKE The term ‘Impressionists’ is derived from At times during the a critical review of their first exhibition, 1860s, Renoir didn’t which referred to the works as ‘impressions’ have enough money rather than finished paintings done using to buy paint! traditional methods. SEIZED IN 1871

During the Paris Commune in 1871, Renoir was painting on the banks of the Seine when he was seized by National Guards, who thought he was a spy sketching river defences. He was taken off to be executed by firing squad but one of the leaders of the Commune, , recognised Renoir as the man who had hidden him a few years earlier when he was on the run from the police. Rigault promptly set him free.

Renoir was fascinated by Guernsey, particularly the south coast with its geological

My dear Friend, structure and stunning bays. The beach dwellers themselves also entranced the artist. He made a link between the idea of nudity in Athens and the casually Once on the boat, like a child playing truant, I watched Normandy disappearing and, I must admit it, I regretted the undressed locals in modern life. good friends who were waiting for me; but the beautiful sea, though rough, had such charm and I am so weak that finally I gave in to the pleasure of watching the rise and fall of these beautiful masses of water, tinted with the most beautiful colours. We reached Jersey (for we are a group). There we visited the island like simple bourgeois, for now I need only Switzerland to become a perfect bonnet-maker. SOLD $78.1m But Guernsey was our goal, and despite the admirable sites which unfolded before our delighted gaze, we waited impatiently for the One of Renoir’s boat which was to take us to see the rock upon which the great poet lamented for eighteen years. At last the whistle sounded and paintings, ‘Bal du in calm sunny weather we sailed round Jersey on our way to our Moulin de la Galette’, goal. What a pretty little place! What pretty paths! Superb rocks, beaches such as Robinson must have had on his island, as well as sold for $78.1 million rump steak and ale at manageable prices — up to now, everything on 17th May 1990 at is fine. All I have to do is to take advantage of the admirable weather and to bring you back some nice things so that you Sotheby’s in New York. forgive my infidelity to beautiful Normandy.”

Letter from Renoir to Edmond Maître, from 4 George Road, St Peter Port, 5th September 1883 Renior in guernsey A journey through the eyes of a master

Renoir’s paintings of Guernsey took several years to sell but they have since been recognised as valuable masterpieces. One of them now hangs in the National Gallery in London and others are in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Renoir devoted considerable time to a piece named ‘Brouillard à Guernesey’ (Fog in Guernsey), where he replicated the obscuring 25 MINS effects of morning fog. It is believed that this painting is a salute to Claude Monet’s ‘Maison In 15 January 1882 du Pêcheur sur la Falaise de Varengeville’ Renoir met the composer (Fisherman’s Cottage on the Cliffs at Richard Wagner at Varengeville) of 1882. The two paintings are his home in Palermo, very similar, however the colour palette and the Sicily. Renoir painted brushstrokes make it very much Renoir’s own Wagner’s portrait in just work and style. 25 minutes.

STAMP oF APPROVAL

Renoir’s Guernsey paintings were the subject of a set of commemorative postage stamps issued by the Bailiwick of Guernsey in 1983. Letter from Renoir to Paul Durand-Ruel, 27th September 1883

“Dear Monsieur Durand,

I hope to return soon, around the 8th or 9th of October, with several canvases and some documents for making pictures in Paris. Here I find myself on a charming beach, quite unlike our Normandy beaches, unfortunately a bit late in the year, but not too late to be able to profit a little from it. Here people bathe among the rocks which serve as cabins, since there is nothing else; nothing is more attractive than this mixture of women and men crowded on these rocks. One would believe oneself in a landscape by Watteau rather than in the real world. So Ill have a source of real and graceful motifs which I will be able to make use of. Some enchanting bathing costumes; and just as in Athens the women are not at all afraid of the proximity of men on the nearby rocks. Nothing is more amusing, when one is strolling through these rocks, than to surprise young girls getting ready to bathe; even though they are English, they are not particularly shocked. Despite the small number of things that Ill be able to bring back, I hope to be able to give you an idea of these charming scenes.” IT’s IN THE GENES

Renoir’s three sons were all successful in the arts. Pierre (1885-1952) became a stage and film actor; Jean (1894-1979) became a filmmaker of note; and Claude (1901-1969) was a ceramic artist. His grandson Claude (1913-1993), son of Pierre, was also a cinematographer. He was involved in the making of The Mystery of Picasso (1956), the documentary on painter Pablo Picasso directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s great-grandson, Alexandre Renoir, also became a professional artist. In 2018, the Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center in Hendersonville, Tennessee hosted an exhibition of Alexandre’s works entitled ‘Beauty Remains’. The title comes from a famous quote by Pierre-Auguste who, when asked why he continued to paint with his painful arthritis in his later years, said, “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.”

In 1988 six of the 15 paintings were brought back together on the island in an exhibition at Candie Museum. Entitled ‘Renoir in Guernsey’, the paintings were supported by a small number of contemporary photographic enlargements of Guernsey as Renoir would have seen it. The island’s tourist board provided financial support and used one of the artworks, ‘Enfants au Bord de la Mer’, in their 1988 marketing campaign, with the slogan ‘Holiday Guernsey – Renoir Did’.

Despite the fact that just six of the 15 paintings were recovered, Renoir in Guernsey was probably the most successful exhibition A talented singer ever put on by the museum. Although the young Pierre-Auguste Although the young Pierre-Auguste had a natural flair for drawing, he was also a talented singer. Forced to leave school at 13 due to his family’s financial circumstances, Renoir also had to stop his music lessons. Renior in guernsey A journey through the eyes of a master

Renoir worked on all these artworks during his stay of just over a month in Guernsey in 1883. The majority depict views of Moulin Huet, which is still treasured by artists due to the special quality of the light and the way it plays on the rocks.

Renior in guernsey A journey through the eyes of a master Grigg’s Guide to Guernsey, Alderney and Sark commented in 1880: “This is a famous resort for artists, many of whom have committed to canvas the lovely and ever-changing aspect its locality presents; while poets too have sung of its charms in language which such scenes alone inspire.” A TURNING POINT IN RENOIR’s CAREER A journey through the eyes of a master

Following the trajectory of Renoir’s career is fascinating. He started out principally as a portraitist, before helping to launch the Impressionist artistic movement in the 1870s. From 1879 onwards, Renoir made a number of soul-searching trips away from his home in Paris, to the coasts of Normandy and the Mediterranean, and to Italy and Algeria. He came to Guernsey in 1883, and we know that in or around this period Renoir was wanting to turn away from the impermanence of Impressionism towards something more eternal.

“Around 1883, Renoir said that he experienced something of a breakdown in his work: ‘I had gone as far as I could with Impressionism and I came to the conclusion that I could neither paint nor draw. In short, I was at an impasse.’ He decided to completely change his perspective, to apply himself to describing the essence of things, the eternal, rather than seizing the fleeting moment, the temporary sensation. He did not renounce Impressionism, but surpassed it.” E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire Critique et Documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs

Whilst Renoir was an immensely complex character and the shift in his career around 1883 cannot be explained by any single factor, there are numerous solid elements which LA BALANÇOIRE Oil on canvas, 1876 suggest that the inspiration he found in Guernsey was key in influencing the turning point that is noted around this time. We know that Renoir was looking to move away from portraiture, and the scenes that he saw at Moulin Huet made a deep impression on him and gave him the idea to incorporate nude figures into landscapes. “Renoir was inspired by what he saw on the beach. He was amused to see there were a lot of bathers who were completely naked - it would have been unthinkable in France at that time, but in Guernsey it was very common... Renoir was thinking about a new type of painting with nude bathers. It was a really important step; it gave him a new way of thinking and he went on to change his style.”

Cyrille Sciama, Director, Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny

GARÇONS NUS DANS LES ROCHERS À GUERNESEY Oil on canvas, 1883

“It was these easy-going customs that surprised and delighted Renoir among the rocks of Moulin Huet in 1883 and he related his responses to the scene to past examples, to the French early 18th-century painter Watteau and to ancient Athens...In the casual undress of at Moulin Huet, Renoir found this idea of the natural body recreated in the modern world.”

John House, Professor, The Courtauld Institute A TURNING POINT IN RENOIR’s CAREER A journey through the eyes of a master

‘Enfants au Bord de la Mer à Guernesey’ (Children on the Seashore, Guernsey), 1883 The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia “This is one of the paintings by Renoir that I love most… and I think part of it is that I see his struggle in painting the picture. This feels like he’s really working it out as he’s painting it.. I feel he’s wrestling with it, he’s really present with it, trying to do something that he doesn’t yet know how to do, and I think the best paintings artists make are the ones they do when they still don’t know how to do them. Once they’ve figured out how to do them it’s really dangerous, because they can just start turning out a product because they know the moves... as a painter, this is the painting that makes me want to run home and paint.”

Bill Scott, Artist

ENFANTS AU BORD DE LA MER A GUERNESEY Please scan the QR code for more information Oil on canvas, 1883 about the turning point, narrated by Cyrille Sciama and relating specifically to Enfants au Bord de la Mer à Guernesey. Key elements of the change in direction in Renoir’s career were the embracing of the beauty and eternity of nature, and the use of the flesh of the human body as a canvas. This a theme that would endure in his art until the end of his life.

“Any individual wishing to make art must be inspired solely by works of nature. He must love her more than the most beautiful mistress and feast his spirit and eyes upon her like a glutton. She is the essence of life. She alone can give us a variety of composition, design and colour necessary to make art. The greatest artist is the one who has seen the most clearly. Art is immortal because it’s a product of nature, filtered through different brains and coloured by different eyes. It will never be monotonous, no more than a tree, a flower and every natural form will ever be. Pull all the leaves off a tree, were there millions of them you wouldn’t find a single one with exactly the same shape or the same colour. The artist must have confidence in himself and listen only to his true master, nature.”

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

FEMME NUE COUCHÉE Oil on canvas, 1910

“My father said, ‘What is more eternal than the human body?’... Renoir often spoke of that state of grace which comes from contemplating God’s most beautiful creation, the human body. He added, for my personal taste the female body. Someday he hoped human minds would be liberated from prudery, and he contributed to the cause by painting nudes of a purity unequalled in the whole history of art.”

Jean Renoir, Renoir, My Father A TURNING POINT IN RENOIR’s CAREER A journey through the eyes of a master

Renoir painted ‘Baigneuse Assise’ (The Seated Bather) after returning from Guernsey. The rocks and cliffs of Moulin Huet are evident in the background, although he found his model in Paris.

“One ambitious figure subject does have a Guernsey setting, The Seated Bather, often dated to 1885, but nearer in handling to the other works of 1883-4. The studies of Moulin Huet with its rocks and cliffs… provide all the elements for its background… The Seated Bather was very probably his principal figure painting of the winter 1883-4, and it suggests that his quest for the perfect model was not in vain. Although he did not, of course, find its actual subject on Guernsey, the relaxed habits of bathing at Moulin Huet may have been the catalyst which allowed Renoir, in this picture, to fuse monumental form with an easy informality of gesture and expression.”

John House, Professor, The Courtauld Institute

BAIGNEUSE ASSISE Oil on canvas, 1883-84 The viewer can appreciate that some of Renoir’s greatest masterpieces retained an influence from the artworks he worked upon in Guernsey.

LES GRANDES BAIGNEUSES Oil on canvas, 1884-87

‘Les Grandes Baigneuses’ (The Large Bathers), 1884-1887 - The Philadelphia Museum of Art “It’s certainly one of the great thighs in art – the right thigh of that woman drawing back takes up a large part of the canvas and when you look at it you see the utter subtlety, the nuances of colour. It’s very far from a flat area, there are about 20 colours just playing back and forth. So it’s a kind of bravura display of painting. This is perhaps the key painting in Renoir’s career. Before it came all the innovations of Impressionism, then he began to think maybe Impressionism wasn’t enough, he wanted to create a more solid art, an art of the museum… He found it very difficult to do and the subject matter – the timeless nude in a landscape - would remain constant for the rest of his career.”

Chris Riopelle, Curator, The National Gallery, London A TURNING POINT IN RENOIR’s CAREER A journey through the eyes of a master

Another example of the inspiration Renoir found in Guernsey is reflected in another key artwork.

‘Les Baigneuses’ (Bathers), 1892 Privately owned “For much of its recorded history, the present picture was identified as being one of those which Renoir completed around the time of his month-long stay on the Channel Island of Guernsey in 1883. For years afterwards, he remembered that there was ‘nothing more attractive’ than the experience of watching men and women bathe together off the coast. The critic Gustave Geffroy was impressed by Renoir’s interpretation of this spectacle, commenting in 1894, ‘The work of Renoir is a source of enchantment for the eye. It is also a consolation, a balm for the spirit ... his observations as a landscape painter in Guernsey, in Toulon, in Algeria, wear the harmony of blue and gold, an extraordinary appearance of flamelike glimmering, they are conflagrations of brightness, mirages of light.’

Writing in the 1988 exhibition catalogue on this subject, John House provided the following rationale as to why the present composition...was in fact painted in the early 1890s. House believes that the jagged rock formations emerging out of the water in this picture were unlike any view that

Renoir would have seen along Moulin Huet in LES BAIGNEUSES Oil on canvas, 1883 Guernsey and were probably done from memory. Moreover, the artist most likely painted these two pictures shortly before selling them to his dealer Durand-Ruel in the early 1890s. ‘If this is so,’ House wrote, ‘this imaginative return to Guernsey, a decade or so after his actual visit, shows what a hold the place still had on him.’”

Sotheby’s catalogue notes from the sale of this artwork in May 2011 Up until the end of his career we see Renoir integrating the two important elements of a typical Impressionist background, similar to the landscapes he painted at Moulin Huet, and the narrative of the nude.

‘Nu Dans un Paysage’ (Nude in a Landscape), 1917. The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia “What I love about this painting is the contrast between the figure and the background, and the background is so abstract and he’s applied the paint very thinly, in washes that are almost like watercolour but are oil paint... The figure is worked and reworked so that paint on the figure is very smooth, whereas in the background you see lots of the texture of the canvas... It’s pretty revolutionary because of course the idea at the time was to have very finished paintings.”

Barbara Buckley, Senior

Director of Conservation, The

Barnes Foundation

NU DANS UN PAYSAGE Oil on canvas, 1917 A TURNING POINT IN RENOIR’s CAREER A journey through the eyes of a master

‘Composition, Cinq Baigneuses’ (Composition, Five Bathers), 1918 The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia “Renoir painted this one year before his death. What I love most about it is how obsessed Renoir is with flesh here… It shows how Renoir equates the female body with nature. When you look at the background, the foliage echoes the contours of the body. The flesh tones carry out into the foliage, he makes the figures look like they are in and of the earth.”

Martha Lucy, Curator, The Barnes Foundation

COMPOSITION, CINQ BAIGNEUSES Oil on canvas, 1918 The Art for Guernsey team believes that the facts and quotes presented in ‘Turning Point in Renoir’s Career’ constitute an exciting platform from which we can engage with Impressionist scholars, art historians and international museums and shine a stronger light on the inspiration that Guernsey gave to the artist. JOURNEY A journey through the eyes of a master

Art for Guernsey’s Renoir journey began when we curated the Renoir Walk in July 2019. When we invited Cyrille Sciama, the Director of the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny and a world-renowned authority on Impressionism, to come to the island to inaugurate the walk, we were looking forward to being enlightened about Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his art.

What we did not anticipate, however, was that Cyrille would make us aware of the profound influence that Renoir’s visit to Guernsey had on his career. The inspiration Renoir found on the island, and at Moulin Huet in particular, is not well documented.

CYRILLE SCIAMA

A typical example of how the Guernsey connection has been overlooked is ‘Baigneuse Assise’ (The Seated Bather), which can be found in the Harvard Art Museum. The gallery’s text about the artwork reads as follows: “Following a trip to Italy in 1881–82 to study the masterpieces of ancient Roman and Renaissance painting, Renoir embarked on one of his most innovative periods. As he later recalled, ‘Around 1883 there occurred what seemed to be a break in my work. I had wrung Impressionism dry.’ Exploring the canonical theme of female nude bathers, Renoir titled a work similar to this one Naiad, or water nymph, highlighting the figure’s classical inspiration. Her pose recalls a well-known Roman sculpture of a bathing nymph; it also evokes a long tradition in painting of depicting nude figures in a landscape.

While this work responds to these precedents, it also breaks with them. Renoir painted the figure and her drapery differently from the landscape, so that she appears to float in the setting. He also left her right foot unresolved where it meets the fabric, signalling that his pictorial approach was no longer a purely naturalistic enterprise.” BAIGNEUSE ASSISE Harvard Art Museum 1883-84 Oil on canvas

There is no reference to Guernsey in the gallery text, despite the fact that it is highly likely Renoir made the shift towards painting nudes in landscapes after his trip, and in this artwork we see a background similar to those he created at Moulin Huet, together with a nude figure: the two elements he started to combine after his stay on the island. Cyrille Sciama and John House, as we see in ‘Turning Point in Renoir’s Career’, do recognise the significance of Guernsey in their commentary on this artwork. This contrast highlights the relative oversight from some art scholars on the inspiring role played by Renoir’s visit to the island on the evolution of his art. JOURNEY A journey through the eyes of a master

The next step in our journey took place earlier in 2020 when Art for Guernsey successfully syndicated and arranged for the acquisition of one of the masterpieces painted by the artist during his residence in Guernsey in 1883: ‘Rochers de Guernesey avec personnages (plage à Guernesey)’.

ROCHERS DE GUERNESEY AVEC PERSONNAGES (PLAGE À GUERNESEY) 1883 Oil on canvas

The artwork is widely considered to be one of the best that Renoir painted during his stay and is one of just five of the original ‘Guernsey-painted’ pieces still in private hands; the other 10 sit in major museum collections, which include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery in London and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. We now join the ranks of these illustrious fellow collectors of Guernsey Renoirs. The group of local art collectors who generously acquired this piece was resolved to do so for the good of the island, to actively capitalise on the artwork to engage islanders and to promote Guernsey in a positive way. The presence of ‘Rochers de Guernesey avec personnages (plage à Guernesey)’ on the island where it was painted opens many doors for collaboration in terms of curating, research and cultural exchanges.

In curating this exhibition, the Art for Guernsey team has endeavoured to seek out clues from art history, and to connect the dots to highlight the importance of Renoir’s trip.

The next step in our journey is to bring leading scholars of Impressionism to the island to conduct further research on the positive influence the island had on Renoir’s career, and to engage with the fellow owners of ‘Guernsey Renoirs’, in particular the museums with extensive Art History Research departments and a strong educational ethos. It is our hope and ambition that the role Guernsey played in Renoir’s career might be better appreciated and understood from an art history perspective.

Art for Guernsey is aiming, with the support of all Guernsey’s key stakeholders, to stage an international exhibition in 2023 on Guernsey soil, curated by Cyrille Sciama, including a significant number of Renoir’s masterpieces, to fully acknowledge, illustrate and celebrate the inspiration that Guernsey brought to Renoir’s art.