[[File:Renoir Bal du Moulin de la Galette.jpg|thumb|300px|Bal au Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre, 1876.]]
[[Image:R Selfportrait.jpg|left]]
'''Pierre-Auguste Renoir''' lived from 1841 to 1919. He was born on February 25, 1841, at Limoges, [[France]] and died on December 3, 1919, at Cagnes sur Mer, France. His family moved to Paris in 1844. Renoir was a famous painter of [[Impressionism]], perhaps the only artist who never produced a sad [[painting]]. He believed that art needs to be pretty, and eventually left Impressionism to paint classical nudes, [[landscape]]s and [[portraits]] with different styles.
He was born on February 25, 1841, at Limoges, [[France]] and died on December 3, 1919, at Cagnes sur Mer, France.
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''The pain passes, but the beauty remains.'' }}
{{cquote| ''Why shouldn't art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.''}}
From the age of thirteen he worked as an apprentice painter at Paris, painting on porcelain wares (plates, cups, and vases). In 1860, Renoir was admitted as an authorized copier in the [[Louvre]]. He made his first attempts at painting by studying the works of Rubens and Fragonard.[http://www.accents-n-art.com/artists/pierre-auguste-renoir-biography.html] In 1862 Renoir began studying art under [[Charles Gleyre]] in [[Paris]] and there he met [[Claude Monet]], [[Alfred Sisley]] and [[Jean-Frédéric Bazille]]. Masters, particularly those of the 18th century, like [[Jean-Antoine Watteau|Antoine Watteau]], [[François Boucher]] and [[Jean-Honoré Fragonard]], influenced his own painting throughout his career. He studied the art of this masters visiting the Louvre. Finding a new inspiration in nature, he, as other impressionist artists, displayed vibrant light and color instead of the somber blacks that had dominated previous painting. [[Gustave Courbet]] and [[Camille Corot]] had also an important influence in his work. In 1881, he traveled to Algeria, Spain and Italy; he met [[Titian]]'s masterpieces in Florence and the paintings of [[Raphael]] in Rome, and Venice conquered him in a way that he will evoke in several canvases. His nude artworks [[Allusion|allude]] simultaneously to the snudes of [[Rubens]] and [[Jean-Honoré Fragonard]]. Renoir started a nude in 1850, "Reclining Nude", and painted the last one in 1919, "The Bathers".
[[File:Renoir, Blonde a la rose, ca. 1916 a.jpg|thumb|220px|Blonde à la rose, Andrée, ca. 1916.]]
Renoir was a prolific painter with more than 4,000 paintings. Some art historians consider the following periods in Renoir's artworks: <font size="3">"The beginnings"</font> 1858-1869 (e.g. "Crown of Roses", ca. 1858... his initial paintings show the influence of the colorism of [[Eugene Delacroix|Eugène Delacroix]]... exhibitions at the Salon de Paris, and the Salon des Refusés... Renoir once said "''my hero was Díaz''" for [[Narcisse Diaz de la Peña]], a member of the [[Barbizon School]]... In the forest of Fontainebleau, in 1863, Renoir met the Bordeaux painter Narcisse Diaz who advised him to lighten his palette... [http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-artists/renoir.htm] In 1863 he met [[Paul Cézanne]] and [[Camille Pissarro]] introduced by Bazille. Cézanne and Pissarro had first met two years previously, at the Atelier Suisse); <font size="3">"Impressionism"</font> 1869-1878 (In 1869, Renoir painted alongside Monet at La Grenouillère... their sketch like technique of broad, loose brushstrokes and their brightened palette attempted to capture the effects of the sun streaming through the trees on the rippling water. This painting campaign catalyzed the development of the Impressionist aesthetic... [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/augu/hd_augu.htm] In the forest of Fontainebleau, Renoir, Monet, Bazille and Sisley painted together and experimented in light, color, water, and form); <font size="3">"dry"</font> or <font size="3">"Ingres period"</font> (he called his ''maniere aigre'') from 1881 to 1888 (a more decorative and traditional style... where drawing took precedence over colour and his painting shows a sharper definition of form [http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-artists/renoir.htm])... e.g. " Les Parapluies" ("The Umbrellas") (ca. 1879), "Le Déjeuner des Canotiers" ("The Luncheon of the Boating Party") (1880-1881), "Les Grandes Baigneuses" (1884-1887); <font size="3">"the pearly period"</font> after 1890 until 1897, (Renoirs work moved in a new direction yet again... he returned to using thin brush strokes and became less concerned with outlines... epic nudes and domestic scenes); <font size="3">"late career"</font> early twentieth century (style changed again and he opted for stronger colors - often reds and oranges - and thick brush strokes... the female nude was a favorite subject of Renoirs and he depicted details of the scene through freely-brushed spots of color which fused his figures and their surroundings... [http://www.artble.com/artists/pierre-auguste_renoir/more_information/style_and_technique]. The Rubenesque nudes he had been painting reached a level of unprecedented exaggeration in the twentieth century, culminating in the massive Bathers at the Musée d'Orsay "The Bathers"). [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/augu/hd_augu.htm]
In 1862 Renoir began studying art under [[Charles Gleyre]] <blockquote>It was in the 1870s, that Renoir’s Impressionism style reached its peak... and he achieved recognition earlier than his friends. He worked at Argenteuil and in [[Paris]]. Masters, particularly those of Renoir participated in the 18th centuryImpressionist exhibitions of 1874, like [[Jean-Antoine Watteau|Antoine Watteau]]1876, [[François Boucher]] 1877 and 1882. [[Jean-Honoré Fragonard]http://www.abcgallery.com/R/renoir/renoirbio.html]He was the first impressionist to deviate from the movement's ultramodern direction, influenced his own painting yet many feel he remained the purest of all the impressionist painters throughout his career(e. He studied the art of this masters visiting the Louvreg. Finding a new inspiration in nature[http://www.conservapedia.com/File:Renoir, he_View_of_Sacre-Coeur, as other impressionist artists_1905.jpg View of Sacre-Coeur, displayed vibrant light 1905.]). [http://www.artble.com/artists/pierre-auguste_renoir] His doubts about the spontaneity and color instead impermanence of the somber blacks that had dominated previous paintingImpressionist aesthetic led him to refuse to participate in the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1878. [[Gustave Courbethttp://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/augu/hd_augu.htm]] had also an important influence in his work.</blockquote>
[[Image:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - By the Water.jpg|thumb|By the Water, 1880.]]
[[File:Renoir, Danse à Bougival, 1882-1883.jpg|thumb|Dance at Bougival, 1882-1883.]]
Before his death Renoir had a supreme triumph, he saw his portrait "[http://www.conservapedia.com/Image:Renoir_Madame_Charpentier.jpg Madame Georges Charpentier]" (1877), hanging in the Louvre.
Some of his most famous paintings are: "[[http://www.conservapedia.com/File:Pierre-Auguste_Renoir,_Le_Pont_des_Arts,_1867-1868.jpg Le Moulin Pont des Arts et l'Institut de la Galette|Bal au Moulin de la Galette]France]", "[http://www.conservapedia.com/File:Renoir_The_Theater_Box_1874.jpg La Loge]", "The Swing", "[[Le Moulin de la Galette|Bal au Moulin de la Galette]]", "Two Sisters (On the Terrace)", "The Luncheon of the Boating Party", "[http://www.conservapedia.com/File:Pierre-Auguste_Renoir,_Le_Pont_des_Arts,_1867-1868.jpg Le Pont des Arts et l'Institut de France]", "Dance at Bougival", "The Swing", "The Large Bathers" (1884-1887), and "The Bathers" ("Three Bathers", 1918-1919); this last Bathers subject appeared frequently in Renoir's oeuvre.
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[[File:Renoir On the Terrace.jpg|thumb|center|280px|On the Terrace, 1881.]]
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[[File:Renoir, The Swing, 1876.jpeg|thumb|The Swing, 1876.]]
[[File:Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881.jpg|thumb|center|400px|Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881.]]
A short while before he died in Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1919, he said the following to his nurse about painting: “I think I am beginning to understand something about it”. [http://www.drawalinesomewhere.com/renoirs-portraits-saying-yes-life/]
*[[Rembrandt]]
*[[Leonardo da Vinci]]
*[[Claude Monet]]
*[[Edouard Manet]]
*[[Painting Schools]]
*[[French Still Life Painting]]
[[Image:Renoir Monet pintando en su jardín de Argenteuil.jpg|thumb|250px|left|[[Monet]] painting in his garden in Argenteuil, 1873.]]
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== External links ==
[[Image:Renoir - Grand Canal Venice.jpg|thumb|250px|Grand Canal Venice, 1881.]]
*[http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=85097&c=&search=Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir]
*[httphttps://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9063208/Pierre-Auguste-Renoir Renoir] Encyclopædia Britannica. *[http://www.renoirgallery.com/ Auguste Renoir Gallery]*[http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/pierre-auguste-renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir] The National Galler.*[http://www.pierre-auguste-renoir.org/ Pierre Auguste Renoir - The complete works]*[http://www.yuabcgallery.com/galleryR/renoir/renoir.asp html Pierre-Auguste Renoir Gallery]Olga's Gallery.
[[Category:French Painters]]
[[Category:Renoir]]