Auguste Renoir was one of
the co-founders of Impressionism. He was so passionate
about painting that he even continued when he was old
and suffering from severe arthritis. Renoir then painted
with the brush tied to his wrists.
The Early Years
Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges in
France. When he was four years old, the family moved to
Paris. The Renoirs lived near the Louvre, which then was
partly a royal palace and partly the museum we know
today. The Louvre was the first encounter of the young
Renoir with art.
At the age of only thirteen Pierre
Auguste started an apprenticeship at a workshop painting
decorations on porcelain. During these years Auguste
Renoir learned a lot about colors and drawing. He became
a skilled and esteemed craftsman at the porcelain
factory. Unfortunately the company went bankrupt and
left the young Renoir rethinking about his future.
At the age of twenty, Renoir joined the
classical painting school of a Swiss artist in Paris.
There he learned how to paint in the style of the old
masters. The art scene at that time was rather stiff and
dominated by what we would call today The
Establishment. Dark colors and photorealistic
artwork was dominant. The Salon, an annual
exhibition event, exercised a kind of factual
censorship. Artwork that was refused by the Salon
had no chance to find a buyer on the market.
The Impressionist Revolution
Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Frederic Bazille and
Auguste Pierre Renoir began to revolt against the
traditional art style. They started painting outdoors,
which itself was considered to be quite revolutionary.
The first
Impressionist paintings were created in the forest
of Fontainebleau and at a nearby little lake. The four
friends wanted to catch the impression of the moment and
to show the effects of light. The Impressionists used
quick brush strokes and bright colors. In the eyes of
their critics these paintings looked unfinished and
sloppily made.
It was clear that the Impressionist
works would be refused by the Salon. So the
Impressionists established their own Salon des
Refuses, the show of the refused ones. This
exhibition had no judges. Every artist who paid a small
fee, was allowed to show his art works.
Renoir Goes His Own Way
Renoir enjoyed the Impressionist style
and he liked to paint outdoor scenes showing everyday
people dancing and having a good time. In these
paintings Renoir mastered the display of light in a way
that makes these scenes so vivid and spontaneous. The
painting Bal au Moulin de la Galette stands for
this period in Renoir's artistic career and is one of
best known Impressionist paintings.
But Renoir never gave up his roots as a
traditional arts craftsman and as an admirer of the old
masters. In the early 1880s Renoir had the feeling of
exhaustion and that he had done everything he could do
with Impressionist style. He went to Italy and when he
came back he changed his style to a more classical one.
He now paid attention to details and more elaborate
lines. Renoir used only five different colors on his
palette. And as a porcelain painter he had learned how
to combine complimentary colors. The painting Les
Grandes Baigneuses, to be seen in the Philadelphia
Museum of Art, is typical for Renoir's classical period.
Renoir should later say to a friend that he would not
create a painting of these dimensions and such elaborate
details a second time. The artist had spent an enormous
amount of time and energy on it.
Late Works
When Renoir grew older, his style
changed again. It become softer and the outlines more
sketchy. He used very strong colors - often reds and
oranges - and thick brush strokes. His favorite subjects
were young, buxom, nude girls. Stricken with severe
arthritis, he was hardly able to hold the brush any
more. So he had the brush tied to his wrists. The change
in style that lasted from about 1903 to the end of his
life, was certainly imposed by his disease.
Renoir died at the age of 79 in Cagnes
in the South of France on December 3, 1919 |