Renoir - 4015

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Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in 1841 in Limoges, central France. He was the sixth child in a family of tailors and dressmaker. The family moved to Paris in 1844. The young Renoir showed a remarkable skill for porcelain drawing and that is why he became an apprentice in a porcelain factory, where he learned to paint colorful paintings on plates. Later, after the factory had gone out of business, he worked for his older brother, decorating fans. Throughout these early years Renoir made frequent visits to the Louvre (the world's largest and most famous art museum, located in Paris), where he studied the art of earlier French masters, particularly those of the eighteenth century—Antoine Watteau (1684–1721), François Boucher (1703–1770), and Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806). His deep respect for these artists influenced his own painting throughout his career.

In 1862, Renoir began to study painting by Charles Gleyr, where his classmates and friends were Alfred Sisley, Frédéric Bazille, and Claude Monet. He exhibits his first painting in 1864 - "Dancing Esmeralda. Recognition received about ten years later, after the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, which he took part in. During the next six years Renoir's art showed the influence of Gustave Courbet and Eduard Manet, the two most innovative painters of the 1850s and 1860s. During this period the most popular trend was the impressionistic movement in the French artistic society, it was revolutionary for the time - a few young artists ( Monet was one of the ideologists) out to paint in the “open air”. As a result, their works revealed a look of freshness that in many ways departed from the look of Old Master painting. The new art displayed bright light and color instead of the solemn browns and blacks of previous painting. These qualities, among others, signaled the beginning of impressionist art. 

He was a close friend with Monet and for a certain period the two painters have an identical style. Together they discovered the shadow effect over water and that the color of the shadow is not black or brown or gray, but the reflected color of the objects surrounding them. Several pairs of paintings exist in which Renoir and Monet, working side-by-side, depicted the same scenes (La Grenouillère, 1869). Renoir was particularly entranced by people and often painted friends and lovers. His early work has a quivering brightness that is gloriously satisfying and fully responsive to what he is painting, as well as to the effects of the light.

During the 1880s Renoir began to move away from the impressionists, largely because he became unhappy with the direction the new style was taking in his own hands. In paintings like the Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880–81), he felt that his style was becoming too loose and that forms were becoming less distinct. He adopted a more classic style of painting. This was first noticed after he traveled to Italy, where he was especially impressed by the works of Raphael. In 1881-1882 he traveled to Algeria and Spain (he got familiar with the works of Velasquez). In Germany he met the composer Richard Wagner and painted his portrait. He spent the summer of 1883 on the island of Jersey. By the end of the 80s Renoir has passed through this classic (also known as a dry) period and came back to his colorful and vibrant painting and subjects. In many ways, the generosity of feeling in these paintings expands on the achievements of his great work in the 1870s.

In 1890 Renoir married Aline Victorine Charigot, they already had one son (Pierre-1885) and two more later – Claude, Jean(a famous film maker, director and producer), Pierre (becomes famous actor). After his marriage Renoir painted many scenes of his wife and daily family life, including their children and their nurse, Aline's cousin Gabrielle Renard. 

Renoir's health declined severely in his later years. In 1903 he suffered his first attack of arthritis and settled for the winter at Cagnes-sur-Mer, France. The arthritis made painting painful and often impossible. Still, he continued to work, at times with a brush tied to his crippled hand. Renoir died at Cagnes-sur-Mer on December 3, 1919, but not before an experience of supreme triumph: the state had purchased his portrait Madame Georges Charpentier (1877), and he traveled to Paris in August to see it hanging in the Louvre.