PIERRE-AUGUSTE-RENOIR– AGES 10 – ADULT | ONLINE EDITION Step 1 - Introducing the Pierre-Auguste Renoir Slideshow Guide BEGIN READING HERE MOTIVATION Have you ever imagined what it would be like to have a famous artist for a father? Would you like that? Can you think of any advantages and disadvantages? Do you think you would write a biography of your famous father when you became an adult? Click Start Lesson To Begin 1.ARTIST’S SON Does this look like a boy or a girl to you? (GIRL) It’s a boy! And you’ll discover why he looks like a “she” in a few minutes. But the little boy you see here is the son of the famous artist we will learn about today. His father painted his portrait many times throughout his childhood. When he became an adult, he wrote a book about his father, so the world could share his memories and learn more about this famous artist. Today we will meet Auguste Renoir through the eyes of his son, Jean, who authored the book titled Renoir, My Father. He wrote the book as a partial answer to the questions he was so often asked: “What sort of man was your father? Did you like being the son of a famous artist?” Click Next To Change Slide DEVELOPMENT Do you think it would be fun to pose for your father while he painted you? Do you imagine Jean, as a young active child, found it difficult to remain still for this pose? Listen to Jean describe how his father painted his portraits. Be able to tell me how Renoir managed to have him hold still. And listen for the two reasons “he” looks like a “she!” Click To Play Audio SCRIPT: “When I was still very young, say at the age of three, four, or five, my father would wait until I found something to occupy me and keep me quiet. Are you wondering why my hair was so long for a boy? My father kept his children’s hair long, like you see here, even at age seven, as a protection against falls. He was very concerned with safety. He also enjoyed the pleasure of painting long hair, so I still had curly red locks at the age of seven. I was never punished when I behaved badly while posing. My father allowed me great freedom. He did not want a still model, so I could run about as I pleased. Only now and then I had to be motionless for a few minutes. If some detail in a portrait required that I should stay still for longer, my nurse would read Anderson’s fairy tales aloud, and she and my father would enjoy them as much as I did!” 1 PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR – Ages 10 – Adult | MeetTheMasters Online Edition PIERRE-AUGUSTE-RENOIR– AGES 10 – ADULT | ONLINE EDITION Click Next To Change Slide 2. SELF-PORTRAIT SCRIPT: “My father was 5’10” tall, with light brown hair before it turned white. In his later years he had a beautiful white beard. He always wore a beard -- not that he liked it particularly, but because he saved time by not having to shave. What most struck people, at first meeting my father, were his eyes and his hands. His eyes were light brown, and they were sharp and penetrating. He would often point out a ladybug climbing up a single blade in a tuft of grass. We, with our young eyes, did not see it! His eyes always seemed to be laughing, but it was a gentle and loving laughter.” Click Next To Change Slide 3. PHOTO - OLD AGE SCRIPT: “His hands were noticed, because they were terribly deformed. His arthritis had made the joints stiff and caused the thumbs to turn inwards towards the palms, and his fingers were bent towards the wrists. My father was a very happy man, and he loved life. The world was a festival of colors and light to him.” Does he sound like a man who would be a good father? It is no wonder, with his personality and love of life, that Renoir has been called a “painter of happiness.” Can you think of the colors he would use and of the subjects he would choose to paint? Let’s see if you were right by seeing his work. Click Next To Change Slide 4. THE SWING Can you remember the last time you stood in the shade of a tree, and light filtered through in spots like you see here? Does this scene make you feel relaxed or tense? (RELAXED) Besides color, can you remember what fascinated Renoir in the world around him? (LIGHT) Is that fascination with light apparent in this painting? (YES) The name given to artists who went against the popular painting styles of the time and showed light and color in a new way is IMPRESSIONISTS. This was painted in an abandoned park near Renoir’s house in Paris, France. He explored the effect of light filtering through the trees and reflecting on faces, clothing, and ground. Do you think he was successful at capturing that effect? (YES) Jeanne, one of Renoir’s favorite models, stands under a tree, holding the rope swing. Notice how he captures the play of silvery reflections on her gown, on the man’s suit, and on the child’s dress. Do you see a delicate pattern of rosy, off-white dabs of paint on the front of Jeanne’s dress? (YES) One art critic referred to those dabs as grease marks. 2 PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR – Ages 10 – Adult | MeetTheMasters Online Edition PIERRE-AUGUSTE-RENOIR– AGES 10 – ADULT | ONLINE EDITION Now that you’ve studied this painting you will be able to answer this question. Did Renoir discover that light affects the color of an object? (YES) Now I want you to carefully observe the SHADOWS Renoir has painted. Where do you see shadows? (BEHIND PEOPLE, IN TREES, ON GROUND) Impressionists studied how colors relate to each other, and they mixed the COMPLEMENT of a color to show a shadow. Click Next To Change Slide 5. COLOR WHEEL Complementary colors are opposite each other on the color wheel. Click Next To Change Slide 6. COMPLEMENTARY COLORS Blue and orange are complementary colors, so an IMPRESSIONIST would mix orange with blue to create a shadow of something blue. If a flower were red, what complementary color would be mixed with red to create shadow, or show shading? Here’s your hint -- think Christmas! (GREEN) Most people at the time, including art critics, had no idea that the Impressionists were discovering the magic of color and light. Because their paintings were repeatedly rejected for exhibition in the popular Salon Exhibition of Paris, the Impressionists decided to hold their own exhibits. This painting by Renoir was shown in the Third Impressionist Exhibit. Do you think Renoir attracted any buyers when he exhibited this painting, titled The Swing? (NO) When it was unsold at the end of the exhibit, a good friend bought it to offer Renoir both financial and moral support. Do you think Renoir liked to be called an Impressionist painter? Let’s have Renoir answer that in his own words. He said, “The only thing I got out of the exhibit was the label ‘Impressionist,’ a name I hate.” The Impressionists preferred to be called “The Independents.” Let’s travel with his son, Jean, to one of his favorite places to visit in spring and summer. Click Next To Change Slide 7. SEINE AT CHATOU (sane at shah-too) Picture Renoir at his easel along the banks of the Seine River in the summertime, and this is one of the paintings completed there. The newly built railways took the artist and his family out of Paris in minutes to the cool riverbanks where they could swim and sail. Renoir would happily paint while his family had a picnic, played, and relaxed. Let’s hear how Renoir’s son, Jean, describes this area he visited often with his father. Listen carefully, and be able to tell me what fascinated Renoir when he painted landscapes. 3 PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR – Ages 10 – Adult | MeetTheMasters Online Edition PIERRE-AUGUSTE-RENOIR– AGES 10 – ADULT | ONLINE EDITION Click To Play Audio SCRIPT: “It was the most delightful spot in the world -- shaded by giant trees, laughing groups of boaters at the water’s edge, gaily dressed girls on the shore, and dancing gleams of sunlight flashing through the leaves. My father would eagerly set up his canvas by the river’s edge. He would talk to us as he painted saying, ‘Just look closely at the water. It changes from hour to hour. Right now it’s green with a little orange in it, but in an hour it will be yellow and violet, and if you mix the right values…’ and he would go on and on about the changing colors.” END AUDIO Does it sound like a place you would enjoy visiting, like Renoir, in the summertime? Renoir and his fellow Impressionists did painting after painting of landscapes showing flowing, sparkling, shimmering water. Why do you think it was so fascinating to them? (COULD EXPLORE REFLECTIONS, LIGHT, COLORS, SHADOWS) I’m sure his son, Jean, watched him as he painted the river scenes. Let’s take a close-up view of this painting, as Jean must have seen it. Do you think we can find those same colors that Renoir talked about seeing in the water -- yellow, violet, orange, and green? Click Next To Change Slide 8.