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| The Story Behind The Painting | The Painting | Who's Who | The Artist | 1880's French Culture |
Pierre-Auguste RenoirPierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, Franceon February 25, 1841. His father was a tailor and his mother a dressmaker. When Renoir was three, the family moved to Paris where he grew up and lived most of his life. From 1854 to 1858, Renoir was apprenticed to a decorator of porcelain. He also studied drawing in the evenings and, from 1864, received permission to paint copies in the Louvre. In 1860-61, Renoir began his formal art training, studying in the studio of Charles Gleyre and entering the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in 1862. At the art school, Renoir formed friendships with Claude Monet (1840-1926), Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870), and Alfred Sisley (1839-1899). The four artists,who had painted together outdoors during their student years, later were founding members of the movement that became known as Impressionism. By 1874, when Renoir participated in the first Impressionist group exhibition, he had also come to know Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) and Berthe Morisot (1841-1895). In the late 1870s Renoir gained critical recognition and achieved financial security for the first time in his career. He received commissions to paint portraits of prominent Parisians and began to exhibit and sell his works through the Paris gallery of Paul Durand-Ruel, who gave him his first one-man exhibition in 1883. Around 1880, Renoir met Aline Charigot,whom he later married in 1890. In 1885, their first son Pierre was born, followed by Jean (the well-known film maker) in 1894, and Claude in 1901. By the 1890s the artist and his family began to spend most of their time away from Paris, in Essoyes (the childhood home of his wife) and in Cagnes. Renoir's paintings from the 1880s onward reflect his continued interest in classical art and the female nude. Despite suffering from debilitating arthritis, Renoir continued to paint through his later years and even to began to work with sculpture in 1913. He died at his home in Cagnes at the age of seventy eight. More paintings by Renoir:
Links to Renoir artworks and biographies: Find Luncheon of the Boating Party puzzles by Amazing WIZ Kids |
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