Famous french paintings - Ingres

Pierre Auguste Renoir painting

our mini gallery

Luncheon of the boating party

The girl

Moulin de la galette

A great French impressionist Pierre Auguste Renoir

A famous and preeminent French painter Pierre Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges (Limousin, France) on the 25th of February 1841. He was the child of a working class family. In 1854, at the age of 13, he began work as a painter in a porcelain factory in Paris, painting flowers on China. He followed then drawing classes and soon met Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille whom he formed a lasting friendship with. They painted together, influenced each other and founded new painting movement Impressionism. In 1867, first Renoir's painting "Lise" was accepted at the Salon. He achieved success and was freed from financial worries in the late 1870s. Renoir painted, even bounded to a wheelchair when arthritis illness severely hampered his movement. Later on he painted with a brush strapping to his arm. Auguste Renoi is one of the best-loved painters in the world.

It was1874 - the year of the First Impressionists' Exhibition. Auguste Renoir sold 3 paintings at the exhibition including La Loge. Several of Renoir's paintings featured his experiences at the opera theatre including an admiration for the performers as seen in The Dancer. Renoir's success of selling his paintings continued through arranged auctions at the Hotel Drouot and several other Impressionist Exhibitions.
The painter fully established his reputation with a solo exhibition held at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris in 1883. In 1887 he completed a series of studies of a group of nude female figures known as The Bathers (Philadelphia Museum of Art). These reveal his extraordinary ability to depict the lustrous, pearly color and texture of skin and to impart lyrical feeling and plasticity to a subject; they are unsurpassed in the history of modern painting in their representation of feminine grace. Many of his later paintings also treat the same theme in an increasingly bold rhythmic style. During the long 20 years of his life Renoir was crippled by arthritis; unable to move his hands freely, he continued to paint, however, by using a brush strapped to his arm. Renoir died at Cagnes, a village in the south of France.

Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)